wbu^ 

University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


HERBERT  CARLETON  WRIGHT 


JOHN  HENRY  NASH  LIBRARY 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


ROBERT  GORDON  SPROUL,  PRESIDENT. 


MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.RAY 

CECILY,  VIRGINIA  AND  ROSALYN  RAY 


RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


The  Committee  on  Publications  of  The  Grolier 
Club  certifies  that  this  copy  of  "  The  Boston  Port 
Bill  as  Pictured  by  a  Contemporary  London  Car- 
toonist," is  one  of  an  edition  of  three  hundred  and 
twenty-five  copies  on  American  hand-made  paper 
and  three  copies  on  vellum,  the  printing  of  which 
was  completed  in  the  month  of  December,  MCMIV 


THE 
BOSTON  PORT  BILL 


THE 

BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

AS    PICTURED    BY  A 

CONTEMPORARY 

LONDON 
CARTOONIST 

BY 

R.  T.  H.  HALSEY 


NEW  YORK 

THE   GROLIER  CLUB 

MCMIV 


COPYRIGHT,  1904 
BY  THE  GROLIER  CLUB 


To  the  memory 

of  the  one  'whose  researches  along  the  by-paths 

of  our  country's  history  furnished  much 

of  the  material  used  in  the 

making  of  this  volume 


INTRODUCTION 

|N  the  year  1 774  the  political  sit- 
uation in  the  American  Colo- 
nies engrossed  the  attention  of 
the  British  people,  and  Boston 
held  the  centre  of  the  stage  in 
the  prologue  to  the  tragedy 
soon  to  be  enacted  across  the  ocean,  the  curtain 
of  which  was  to  fall  upon  Great  Britain  mourn- 
ing the  loss  of  the  best  part  of  her  American 
Empire. 

Constitutional  government  in  England  at 
this  time  was  considered  by  many  to  be  existing 
merely  in  name.  His  Majesty,  George  III,  had 
made  himself  supreme.  The  Cabinet  was  com- 
posed of  men  chosen  for  their  willingness  to  do 
their  master's  pleasure,  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  filled  with  the  King's  creatures,  almost 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

two-fifths  of  its  members  being  placemen  and 
pensioners  of  the  Administration. 

Popular  representation  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons was  a  misnomer.  The  great  centres  of  pop- 
ulation were  barely  represented.  The  County 
of  Middlesex,  which  included  both  London 
and  Westminster,  was  allowed  only  eight  repre- 
sentatives, while  Cornwall  had  forty-four.  Of 
the  five  hundred  and  thirteen  members  of  the 
House,  two  hundred  and  fifty-four  represented  less 
than  eleven  thousand  five  hundred  electors.  There 
were  few  seats  in  smaller  boroughs  which  could 
not  be  purchased.  The  enormous  sums  known 
to  have  been  expended  in  bribery  and  corruption 
by  the  Administration,  in  order  to  make  the 
King's  power  absolute,  had  not  only  emptied  the 
Treasury,  but  placed  all  England  at  the  mercy 
of  a  Sovereign,  whose  love  of  power  made  him 
believe  himself  almost  superior  to  the  Magna 
Charta. 

The  newspaper  attacks  upon  the  Adminis- 
tration, for  its  faintly  disguised  attempts  to  stifle 
constitutional  government  in  England,  were  no 
less  bitter  than  the  arraignment  emanating  from 
the  pen  of  "  Junius,"  which  had  appeared  in  the 
London  Public  Advertiser  at  intervals  during  the 
period  from  1767—72. 

The  economic  and  constitutional  questions 
involved  in  Parliament's  American  policy  had 


INTRODUCTION 

been  for  some  years  freely  discussed  in  the  press, 
and  had  thus  become  no  less  clearly  understood  in 
England  than  America,  and  a  strong  pro-Amer- 
ican sentiment  had  been  developed  among  the 
English  people.  Some  were  undoubtedly  influ- 
enced by  the  fact  that  the  curtailment  of  the 
American  trade,  arising  from  the  retaliatory  meas- 
ures adopted  by  the  Colonies,  had  brought  much 
destitution  to  the  manufacturing  centres  of  Eng- 
land. Others  took  the  stand  that  the  system  of 
personal  government  instituted  by  the  King  could 
be  checked,  only  by  America's  successful  stand  in 
behalf  of  rights  and  privileges  long  enjoyed,  but 
then  in  jeopardy. 

Free  discussion  of  both  sides  of  the  Ameri- 
can question  predominated  in  the  columns  of  the 
newspapers.  The  editors  gave  much  space  to 
news  from  America,  and  lamented,  that,  owing  to 
the  government's  practice  of  searching  the  mail- 
bags  from  America,  they  were  hampered  in  their 
efforts  to  enlighten  their  readers  more  fully  on 
this  all-important  topic.  The  attitude  of  the 
newspapers,  at  this  time,  and  during  the  war 
which  followed,  was  thus  fittingly  described  in 
"  The  History  of  British  Journalism "  written 
by  Alexander  Andrews,  and  published  in  Lon- 
don nearly  half  a  century  ago. 

"With  the  exception  of  the  Constitutional 
Society's  advertisements,  the  melancholy  strife 


THE   BOSTON   PORT  BILL 

between  Old  England  and  her  refractory  children 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  which  divided 
households  and  brought  bitterness  and  angry 
words  into  almost  every  home,  seems  to  have  in- 
volved the  newspapers  in  no  trouble.  The  tone 
they  assumed  was  strong,  decisive,  even  violent, 
but  it  was  a  sign  of  the  times  that,  although  the 
public  mind  was  heated  almost  to  combustion, 
they  were  allowed  to  scatter  the  most  explosive 
materials  about  almost  unchecked.  Governments 
had  discovered  that  the  newspapers  spoke  the 
voice  of  the  people,  and  that  to  put  them  down 
would  require  an  army,  not  a  few  crown  coun- 
sel. Neither  could  they  be  so  easily  put  down 
when  they  gave  up  low  and  vulgar  personalities, 
and  wrote  with  that  studied  and  convincing  rea- 
soning that  is  far  more  terrible.  It  is  beyond 
doubt  that,  as  the  law  stood,  they  wrote  treason; 
but  the  people's  sentiments,  right,  justice,  hon- 
our, and  religion  were  all  treason  to  that  frater- 
nal strife:  they  spoke  treason  when  they  cried, 
'  Hold,  you  shall  not  murder  your  brother ! ' 
they  wept  treason  over  the  dead  of  Lexington 
and  Concord ;  they  shouted  treason  when  they 
rejoiced  that  cousins'  blood  had  ceased  to  flow, 
and  men  speaking  the  same  tongue  had  ceased 
to  fight.  Yet  the  guilty  law  was  coward,  for 
then  treason  was  right  and  law  was  wrong." 
Additional,  yet  neglected,  evidence  of  the  un- 


INTRODUCTION 


popularity  of  the  Administration's  course  is  pre- 
served to  us  in  the  cabinets  of  the  print  collec- 
tors, for  of  all  the  numerous  political  cartoons  of 
the  period  published  in  London,  but  few  attack 
the  opponents  of  the  Administration  in  England 
or  America. 

The  craze  for  "humourous  mezzotints,"  which 
kept  engravers  well  occupied  and  English  print- 
sellers  prosperous  during  the  last  three  decades  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  was  in  its  early  stages. 
The  designs  of  many  of  these  were  furnished  by 
Morland,Ward,  Wheatley,  Dighton  and  Edwards, 
some  of  whom  hold  high  places  in  the  annals 
of  British  art,  and  were  scraped  by  many  of 
the  popular  mezzotinters  of  the  day,  McArdell, 
Dickinson,  Wilson,  Watson,  Houston,  and  Earl- 
om.  Others  were  both  invenit  and  fecit  by 
Phillip  Dawe,  William  Humphrey,  J.  Dixon  and 
J.  Raphael  Smith,  examples  of  whose  work  are 
reproduced  in  this  volume.  In  these  cartoons, 
the  fashions,  follies,  frailties  and  foibles,  and  also 
the  sports  and  vices  of  every-day  life  were  delin- 
eated and  held  up  to  ridicule.  The  scenes  from 
the  novels  of  Fielding  and  Smollett  afforded 
pleasing  subjects  for  the  designer's  pencil  as  well 
as  the  ostentation  displayed  by  the  "  Indian  Na- 
bobs" after  their  arrival  home  saturated  with  the 
gold  and  vices  of  the  Orient.  Advantage  was 
taken  of  the  widespread  knowledge  of  the  uses 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

which  this  class  of  adventurers  made  of  their  ill- 
gotten  wealth,  to  picture  them  entering  White- 
hall seated  on  elephants,  and  paving  the  street 
before  them  with  showers  of  golden  coin. 

While  apparently  the  function  of  these  car- 
toons was  to  amuse,  yet  their  real  province  was 
to  ridicule  and  deride  features  of  English  life, 
which,  if  unchecked,  would  undermine  the  health 
of  the  nation.  Hundreds  of  them  were  advertised 
under  the  heading  of  "  Posture  Mezzotints  "  at 
a  price  of  one  shilling  (two  shillings  coloured) 
in  the  contemporary  catalogues  issued  by  the  va- 
rious print  warehouses.  The  reasons  for  this 
designation,  as  well  as  for  the  size  of  the  prints, 
14x10  inches,  inside  measurement,  are  eluci- 
dated by  the  views  of  the  old  English  print- 
shops  (see  illustration).  This  cartoon  shows  the 
front  windows  of  the  shop  of  John  Bowles  (one 
of  whose  cartoons  is  reproduced  on  page  157), 
each  print  appearing  within  its  individual  win- 
dow pane — the  kindly  faces  of  Bunyan,  the  Wes- 
leys,  Whitfield  and  others  being  displayed  above 
an  assortment  of  the  humourous  mezzotints  with 
which  the  rival  print-sellers  regaled  their  patrons. 

The  Act  of  Parliament  which  peremptorily 
ordered  the  Harbour  of  Boston  to  be  closed  to 
commerce  on  June  first,  1 774,  and  known  in  his- 
tory as  THE  BOSTON  PORT  BILL,  aroused  such  a 
storm  of  indignation  in  America  that  the  thir- 


Mils  MACARONI  and  her  GALLANT  at  a  Print  -Shop  . 
//tfi-rtn'/tf  ,m,/ /iM"///M/rr^i /if/r-.    j      ',  ><•///<•  r,i,,i  ('<>>////<  /..  /•// 
/ii-tArs  / /iiirarfrKi.  in  "(i,(iiri.,>iirri     )         I       //<•<•/•  /////</  i/wii'iiiii  '  /n</nit/r  f/inr  ,•//•// 

'•  --V,  .'    •./   .lr.Ln  1V>wll*»    .;/  \"/.l///  t'.'/rt/ll// 


INTRODUCTION 


teen  Colonies  rallied  to  the  support  of  Boston 
and  became  united  in  their  opposition  to  the  plans 
made  by  the  British  Ministry  for  the  subservi- 
ence of  local  government  on  this  continent. 

In  the  following  autumn  and  early  in  the 
next  year  Messrs.  Rob't  Sayer  and  J.  Bennett, 
Print-sellers,  of  53  Fleet  St.,  London,  put  upon 
the  English  market  a  series  of  five  of  these  hu- 
mourous mezzotint  cartoons,  which,  by  their  de- 
piction of  certain  amusing  incidents  which  had 
taken  place  in  the  Colonies,  subtly  and  with 
sympathetic  moral  told  the  story  of  the  causes, 
effects  and  results  of  this  mistaken  act  of  legis- 
lation. The  information  in  regard  to  these  in- 
cidents had  reached  England  in  the  form  of  pri- 
vate letters  from  America,  the  recipients  of  which 
had  allowed  their  publication  in  the  London 
newspapers,  thereby  furnishing  the  designer  with 
a  subject  for  his  pencil  which  was  familiar  to  the 
print  buying  public  of  London. 

A  study  of  these  cartoons  (which  are  repro- 
duced upon  pages  83,  171,  215,  277,  317)  dis- 
closes an  extraordinary  knowledge  of  the  life, 
customs  and  political  conditions  in  the  Colonies. 

Though  unsigned,  they  are  unmistakably  the 
work  of  Phillip  Dawe,  a  pupil  of  Hogarth,  who, 
while  lacking  his  master's  skill  with  the  pencil, 
inherited  his  master's  power  of  exposing  politi- 
cal follies  in  their  weakest  and  most  ludicrous 


THE   BOSTON   PORT  BILL 

points.  The  qualities  which  Charles  Lamb  de- 
scribed as  being  peculiar  to  work  of  Hogarth  are 
here  present — the  quantity  of  thought  crowded 
into  each  picture,  the  extraordinary  attention  to 
detail,  the  strongly  charactered  faces  and  the 
introduction  of  children  to  give  tranquillity  and 
a  portion  of  their  own  innocence  to  the  scene — 
all  bespeak  the  master's  influence. 

The  results  of  the  ingenious  skill  displayed, 
in  thus  utilizing  the  knowledge  of  amusing  scenes 
taken  from  the  political  world  in  the  Colonies, 
with  which  to  ridicule  the  Administration's 
American  policy,  suggests  another  tribute  by 
Lamb  to  the  works  of  the  great  cartoonist:  "  We 
do  not  merely  laugh  at  them,  but  we  are  led  into 
long  chains  of  reflection  by  them." 

The  uncouth  garments,  in  which  Dawe 
clothed  his  Colonials,  in  no  way  indicated  a  de- 
sire to  ridicule  the  wearers,  for,  by  exaggerating 
this  distinguishing  feature,  he  forcibly  pointed  out 
with  his  pencil  what  the  newspapers  bemoaned 
in  their  columns — that  home  industries  were  fur- 
nishing to  America  the  necessities,  the  supplying 
of  which  had  hitherto  enriched  the  manufac- 
turers of  England.  In  addition  to  the  series  is- 
sued by  Rob't  Sayer  &  J.  Bennett,  individual 
mezzotints  of  similar  character,  which  were  put 
upon  the  market  by  their  rivals,  John  Bowles, 
William  Humphrey  and  Carington  Bowles,  are 


INTRODUCTION 


reproduced  in  this  volume.  The  wealth  of  ma- 
terial on  this  subject,  in  the  form  of  political 
caricatures,  engraved  in  line  and  etched,  has  not 
been  drawn  upon. 

The  great  attention  paid  to  detail  in  these 
prints  presages  a  corresponding  knowledge  of 
American  affairs  on  the  part  of  the  future  pur- 
chasers. A  thorough  elucidation  of  the  individ- 
ual story  told  by  each  cartoon,  and  of  the  moral 
told  by  the  series  as  a  whole,  obviously  can  be 
obtained  only  by  recourse  to  the  source  whence 
the  designer  derived  his  inspiration,  and  the  print- 
buyer  the  enlightenment  on  American  affairs, 
which  rendered  possible  proper  appreciation  of 
these  eccentric  political  arguments. 

Therefore,  in  unfolding  the  stories  told  by 
these  prints  the  English  newspapers  have  been 
searched  with  a  view  of  presenting  such  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  American  affairs  as  was  pos- 
sessed by  and  influenced  the  thought  of  both  the 
designer  and  his  patrons. 

To  describe  adequately  the  sympathy  felt  in 
Great  Britain  for  those  living  in  the  Colonies, 
it  has  been  necessary  to  review,  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  British  people,  Parliament's  Amer- 
ican policy  during  the  ten  years  previous  to  the 
passage  of  The  Boston  Port  Bill.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  columns  of  the  English  press  have 
been  lavishly  quoted  from. 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Of  the  newspapers  at  my  disposal  the  London 
Chronicle,  which  was  made  up  of  eight  quarto 
pages  and  published  tri-weekly,  has  been  most 
freely  utilized.  Additional  weight  must  be 
given  to  the  evidence  gleaned  from  its  columns, 
from  the  fact  that  in  all  histories  of  British  Jour- 
nalism, this  paper  is  described  as  a  Tory  organ. 
Other  information  has  been  taken  from  the  Mid- 
dlesex Journal,  or  Chronicle  of  Liberty,  also  a  tri- 
weekly, which  was  started  in  1769  by  William 
Beckford,then  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  and  other 
citizens,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  championing 
the  cause  of  John  Wilkes.  Its  editors  spared 
neither  energy  nor  ink  in  attacking  the  Admin- 
istration's treatment  of  the  Colonies.  The  prin- 
ciples of  the  paper,  "  LIBERTY  MORE  PRECIOUS 
THAN  GOLD,"  were  strongly  expressed  in  the  ini- 
tial letter,  which  headed  its  columns  in  1774, 
and  is  reproduced  on  page  xi.  The  other  news- 
papers quoted  from,  like  most  of  their  contem- 
poraries, were  vehement  in  their  opposition  to 
the  Administration. 

While  perusing  the  columns  of  the  British 
press  in  search  of  light  upon  the  story  of  these 
cartoons  the  thought  was  constantly  recurrent 
that  many  of  these  articles  on  the  American 
question  emanated  from  the  pen  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  bearing,  as  they  do,  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  the  literary  style  of  those  contributions 


INTRODUCTION 


known  to  have  been  written  by  him,  which  ap- 
peared under  various  pseudonyms  in  the  London 
Chronicle,  Public  Advertiser  and  Public  Ledger. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  cover  com- 
pletely, the  history  of  the  period  to  which  the 
cartoons  refer.  Only  such  portions  of  it  as  man- 
ifestly impressed  themselves  upon  the  cartoon- 
ist have  been  discussed,  the  explanation  of  which 
necessarily  has  been  given  in  the  form  of  a  series 
of  monographs. 

Every  effort  has  been  made  to  keep  all  the 
features  of  the  volume  contemporaneous.  Con- 
temporary portraits,  views,  and  emblems  appear 
in  the  headbands  and  tailpieces,  the  decorative 
motives  of  which  are  based  entirely  upon  those 
used  by  our  Colonial  engravers.  The  insertion 
of  views  of  our  Colonial  buildings  in  the  ini- 
tial letters  was  suggested  by  the  practice  followed 
by  our  Colonial  editors.  The  binding,  full  calf, 
is  stamped  in  gold  with  motives  used  by  our  Co- 
lonial book-binders. 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the 
courtesies  and  facilities  afforded  me  in  the  vari- 
ous libraries  where  I  have  had  occasion  to  work, 
my  thanks  to  the  many  friends  who  have  so  in- 
terestedly and,  at  times,  so  labouriously  assisted 
me  in  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript,  and  my 
gratitude  to  my  friend,  Mr.  Francis  S.  King,  for 
the  painstaking  and  consummate  skill  with  which 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

he  adapted  and  refined  the  designs,  oftentimes 
rude,  of  our  early  American  engravers,  and  yet 
preserved  all  the  character  and  feeling  of  the 
period  in  the  illustrations  which  are  the  feature 
of  this  volume. 

While  the  typography  of  the  volume  testi- 
fies to  the  care  bestowed  upon  it  by  Mr.  Walter 
Gilliss,  to  whom  the  making  of  the  book  was 
intrusted,  I  wish  to  express  my  obligation  to 
Mr.  Gilliss  for  the  judgment,  taste,  and  unre- 
mitting zeal  with  which  he  personally  supervised 
the  carrying  out  of  every  detail  connected  with 
this  publication. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction xi 

i   British  Opinion  of  the  Stamp  Act  Leg- 
islation   i 

ii   English  Disapproval   of  the    Colonial 

Policy  of  Parliament  ....     49 

in  British  Indignation  at  the  Punishment 

of  Boston 123 

iv  London's  Knowledge  of  the  Activities 

of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  in  New  York   1 77 

v  Virginia  Defies    Parliament   and   Sup- 
ports Boston 223 

vi   English  Recognition  of  the    Political 

Activities  of  Colonial  Women        .   283 


Index 


323 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


His    MAJESTY    GEORGE    III.       .       Frontispiece 

Engraved  in  mezzotint  by  S.  Arlent-Edwards  from 
a  Wedgwood  medallion  modeled  by  Flaxman. 

PHOTOGRAVURES    ON    COPPER 

Lord  North Title-page 

Printed  in  colour  from  a  Wedgwood  medallion 
modeled  by  Flaxman. 

Mifs  MACARONI   and  her  GALLANT   at  a 

Print-Shop xvii 

Published  by  John  Bowles,  April  2d,  1773. 

Cartoon  of  Britannia  in  the  Act  of  Self-de- 
struction        19 

THE  WISE  MEN  of  GOTHAM  and  their 
GOOSE 43 

Published  by  W.  Humphrey, February  i6th,  1776. 
Printed  in  the  colours  of  the  original. 

The  BOSTONIAN'S  Paying  the  EXCISE-MAN, 

or  TARRING  &  FEATHERING  ...     83 

Printed   for  Rob't  Sayer  &  J.   Bennett,  October 
3ist,  1774. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A  NEW  Method  of  MACARONY  MAKING, 

as  practifed  at  BOSTON    .        .        .  92 

Printed  for  Carington  Bowles,  October  nth, 
1774.  (Advertised  as  still  for  sale,  in  Carington 
Bowies'  Catalogue  of  1790.) 

A  POLITICAL  LESSON      .....    157 

Printed  for  John  Bowles,  September  7th,  1774. 

The  BOSTONIANS  in  DISTRESS      .       .       .172 

Printed  for  R.   Sayer  &  J.    Bennett,  November 
1774. 


THE  PATRIOTICK  BARBER  of  NEW  YORK, 

or  the  CAPTAIN  in  the  SUDS         .        .   215 

Printed  for  R.  Sayer  &  J.  Bennett,  February  I4th, 
I775- 

THE  ALTERNATIVE  OF  WILLIAMS-BURG       277 

Printed  for  R.  Sayer  &  J.  Bennett,  February  i6th, 
1775. 

A  SOCIETY  of  PATRIOTIC  LADIES  AT  ED- 

ENTON  in  NORTH  CAROLINA         .        .   317 
Printed  for  R.  Sayer  &  J.  Bennett,  March  25th, 

I775- 

HEADBANDS,  TAILPIECES  AND   INITIAL 
LETTERS 

ENGRAVED  ON  COPPER  BY  FRANCIS   S.  KING 

i   Bofton  N   Engd  Planted  A.D.  MDCXXX      xi 

A  faithful  copy  (without  the  cartouche)  of  the  emblematic  vignette, 
6)£  x  3>£  inches  in  size,  on  "  fhis  plan  of  "Boston  in  JftftD  4Bne» 
lattt),  engraven  by  Thos.  Johnson,  Bofton,  N.  E.,  and  published  by 
Will  Burgifs,"  1729. 

1  1   Initial  Letter  used  by  the  Middlesex  Jour- 

nal in  1  774  .....      xi 

xxvii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

in   Stamp  issued  in   1765  for  taxation- 
purposes  in  America    .        .        .          xxiv 

iv  Symbolical  headband   ....        3 

Composed  of  the  medal  described  on  page  26;  a  design  of  a  chain- 
ring,  bearing  the  names  of  and  linking  together  the  Thirteen  Colo- 
nies, which  appears  on  a  service  of  Queen's  ware,  impressed  with 
the  mark  used  by  Wedgwood  not  later  than  1769;  the  Tudor  rose, 
thistle  and  harp,  emblems  of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland, 
from  the  headband  of  a  pamphlet  by  John  Dickinson  entitled 
"The  Late  Regulations  respecting  the  British  Colonies  consid- 
ered, etc.,"  printed  by  William  Bradford,  Philadelphia,  1765;  the 
cock,  the  contemporary  symbol  by  which  France's  interest  in 
American  affairs  was  depicted;  the  "disjointed  snake"  with  its 
motto  "UNITE  OR  DIE"  designed  by  Franklin  in  1754  for  thePenn- 
sylvania  Gazette,  and  frequently  used  as  a  headband  by  other  Co- 
lonial newspapers  ten  and  twenty  years  later. 

v  The  State  House  at  Boston        .        .        3 

Redrawn  from  the  view  of  the  "Boston  Massacre"  engraved  by 
Paul  Revere  in  1770,  and  a  painting  done  in  1801,  now  in  the 
possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

vi   Benjamin  Franklin       ....     48 

From  a  medallion  made  by  Josiah  Wedgwood  in  1775;  enclosed 
in  a  border  similar  to  that  engraved  by  Paul  Revere  with  which 
he  framed  a  portrait  of  Cromwell  on  the  bill-head  of  the  Crom- 
well's Head  Tavern.  In  the  original  "  JOSHUA  BRACKETT 
CROMWELL'S  HEAD— SCHOOL-STREET— BOSTON"  filled  the 
space  occupied  by  the  legend  "IDLENESS  AND  PRIDE  TAX  WITH 

A  HEAVIER  HAND  THAN  KINGS  AND  PARLIAMENTS,"  taken  from  the 

letter  quoted  on  page  22. 

vii  William  Pitt  and  America         .        .51 

From  a  contemporary  Chelsea-Derby  Group  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. At  least  as  far  back  as  1742  the  Pennsylvan ia  Gazette  used 
for  its  headband  a  crude  copy  of  the  book-plate  of  William 
Penn  with  the  legend  "JUSTICE"  and  "MERCY"  in  place  of  the 
motto  "DUM  CLAVUM  TENEAM."  Some  years  later  this  was  su- 
perseded by  an  armorial  design  containing  the  same  crest,  the  arms 
and  legend .  This  in  time  gave  way  to  the  exquisite  cartouche  (here 
reproduced)  which  enclosed  the  arms  of  William  Penn  and  first 
appeared  April  I2th,  i759,overthe  signature  of  j.  TURNER,  5c. 

viii   Faneuil  Hall 51 

From  an  engraving  in  the  Massachusetts  Magazine,  March,  1789. 

ix  John  Wilkes 122 

Contemporary  Chelsea-Derby  Statuette;  the  symbolic  border  was 
suggested  by  the  one  employed  by  Paul  Revere  to  decorate  the 
punch-bowl  described  on  page  113. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

x  Emblem  of  the  United  Colonies       .    125 

The  central  portion  of  this,  the  Tree  of  Liberty,  supported  by  the 
arms  of  the  twelve  Colonies  represented  at  Philadelphia  in  1774, 
resting  on  the  Magna  Charta  and  encircled  by  the  "living  snake" 
bearing  the  prophetic  legend  here  given,  appeared  in  the  headband 
of  the  New  York  Journal  or  the  General  Advertiser,  of  December 
I5th,  1774. 

xi   Carpenters  Hall,  Philadelphia  .        .125 

From  a  contemporary  drawing  by  Edw.  Mumford  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Philadelphia  Historical  Society. 

xii  The   Governor's   Palace,  Newberne, 

N.  C 176 

From  a  print  in  Lossing's  "  Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the  Revolu- 
tion." The  most  elaborate  and  beautiful  of  all  of  our  Colonial 
public  buildings.  It  was  built  of  brick  with  marble  trimmings 
and  finished  in  1770  at  a  cost  of  £16,000.  The  central  build- 
ing had  a  frontage  of  eighty-seven  feet  and  a  depth  of  fifty-nine 
feet  and  served  both  as  a  residence  and  State-house ;  connected 
with  it  by  curviform  colonnades  were  buildings  used  for  the  kitchen 
and  servants'-hall,  Secretary's  office  and  laundry;  the  decorative 
motives  in  the  border  of  the  engraving  were  suggested  by  those  in 
the  headband  of  Rivington's  New  York  Gazetteer  in  1774. 

xiii  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  York    .        .179 

As  it  appeared  in  Colonial  days,  the  steeple  not  having  been  added 
until  1794.  The  Arms  of  the  City  of  New  York,  here  reproduced, 
formed  the  headband  of  Gaines'  New  York  Gazette  in  1774;  the 
elaborate  border  was  copied  from  the  one  in  the  headband  of  the 
Williatniburg  Gazette,  where  it  enclosed  the  Seal  of  Virginia  and 
a  view  of  Jamestown. 

xiv  The  "New  Jail,"  New  York    .        .179 

Erected  in  1757,  remodelled  in  1830,  it 'served  since  then  for  a 
Hall  of  Records  until  demolished  during  the  past  year.  The  con- 
tour of  the  building  itself  is  based  upon  a  print  in  Valentine's 
Manual  for  1847,  and  the  cupola  follows  the  lines  of  those  shown 
on  the  building  in  the  Howdell  (1765),  Ratzer  (1776)  and  other 
contemporary  views. 

xv  Statue  of  William  Pitt        .        .        .222 

Erected  in  New  York  in  1770  (pp.  28-32) ;  this  restoration  is 
made  from  the  torso  in] the  possession  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society,  and  the  companion  statue  which,  in  a  mutilated  condi- 
tion, is  still  standing  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

xvi   Statue   of  Lord    Botetourt   at  Wil- 

liamsburg,  Virginia         .        .        .225 

A  full  description  of  this  is  given  on  pages  243-248 ;  on  the  left  of 
the  oval  frame  is  the  Seal  of  Virginia,  copied  from  that  appear- 
ing in  the  headband  of  the  WiUiamsburg  Gazette;  on  the  right  are 
the  Arms  of  Lord  Botetourt,  which  were  chiselled  on  the  front  of 
the  pedestal,  as  shown  in  the  engraving. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

xvii  The    House  of   Burgesses    at    Wil-    PAGE 
liamsburg,  Virginia          .        .        .225 

From  a  contemporary  drawing  in  the  library  of  William  and 
Mary  College,  at  WilUamsburg. 

xvni   Emblematic  figures  of  Great  Britain 

and  America 282 

Both  the  bas-relief  and  its  frame  are  reproduced  from  the  panel 
on  the  back  of  the  pedestal  of  the  statue  of  Lord  Botetourt;  the 
honeysuckle  and  rosette  motives  are  also  found  on  the  pedestal 
itself. 

xix  The  Bruton  Parish  Church  at  Wil- 

liamsburg 285 

Erected  in  1715;  the  chalice,  paten  (both  1655)  and  alms-basin 
(1739)  "* tne  Panel  on  the  left?  formerly  belonged  to  the  James- 
town Church;  since  its  abandonment  they  have  been  in  use  at  the 
Bruton  Church;  in  the  panel  on  the  right  are  the  flagon  (1766), 
alms-basin  (1764)  and  chalice  (unmarked),  which  were  purchased 
for  the  Bruton  Parish  Church;  and  a  two-handled  cup  and  cover 
(1686);  these  pieces  are  fully  described  in  "Old  Plate"  by  John 
H.  Buck. 

xx  Colonial   House  at  Edenton,  North 

Carolina 285 

In  this  hangs  an  oil  portrait  of  Mrs.  Penelope  Barker,  whose  sig- 
nature was  attached  to  the  agreement  printed  on  page  314. 

xxi  Vignette — Colonial  China         .        .322 

Consisting  of  Cauliflower,  Leeds,  Tortoise-shell  and  so-called 
Lowestoft  wares,  and  a  soft  pottery  tea  caddy  decorated  with  two 
"Macaronies";  the  gavel  resting  on  the  fan  suggests  feminine  inter- 
est in  politics. 


I 

BRITISH  OPINION  OF  THE  STAMP 
ACT  LEGISLATION 


BRITISH    OPINION    OF    THE    STAMP    ACT 
LEGISLATION 

ERE  AS  it  is  just  and  necessary 
that  a  revenue  be  raised  in  His 
Majesty's  dominions  in  Amer- 
ica for  defraying  the  expenses 
of  defending  and  protecting  and 
securing  the  same."  Such  was 
the  apparently  innocent  phraseology,  as  it  ap- 
peared in  the  press,  of  the  preamble  to  the  Act 
passed  by  the  British  Parliament  in  1764  with 
which  Great  Britain  started  on  her  policy  of 
colonial  oppression — a  policy  which  was  only 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

terminated  twelve  years  later  by  the  dismem- 
berment of  her  American  empire. 

The  Seven  Years'  War  which  resulted  in  the 
loss  of  Canada  to  France  had  just  ended.  The 
question  of  financing  the  immense  debt  thereby 
incurred  was  a  serious  one,  and  the  yearly  bud- 
get placed  before  Parliament  disclosed  the  fact 
that  the  maintenance  of  the  royal  forces  in  Amer- 
ica necessitated  a  yearly  expense  of  nearly  three 
hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling.  To  English- 
men it  seemed  but  just  that  the  American  Col- 
onies should  bear  a  portion  of  this  burden.  While 
the  object  of  the  Act  purported  to  be  the  raising 
of  additional  revenue  from  America,  yet  certain 
provisions  in  it  tended  still  more  strongly  to  con- 
fine the  trade  of  the  Colonies  to  the  seaports  of 
Great  Britain,  and  threatened  the  destruction  of 
the  commerce  which  the  American  merchants 
had  developed  with  the  neighbouring  French  and 
Spanish  possessions. 

Up  to  this  time  England  had  interfered  but 
slightly  with  the  affairs  of  her  colonies,  and  the 
sundry  acts  passed  for  the  purpose  of  furthering 
her  policy  of  securing  for  herself  alone  the  trade 
of  her  American  possessions  had  been  but  lightly 
enforced.  The  afore-mentioned  Act,  moreover, 
provided  that  the  monies  obtained  by  the  duties 
therein  imposed,  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
royal  Exchequer  and  that  offenders  against  its 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP   ACT   LEGISLATION 

restrictions  on  commerce  be  brought  to  trial  be- 
fore the  Vice-Admiralty  Courts.  Resolutions 
were  also  passed  in  Parliament  declaring  it  to 
be  the  intention  of  the  government  in  the  next 
year  to  impose  Stamp  Duties  in  the  American 
Colonies  upon  all  newspapers,  legal  instruments, 
etc.  Neither  the  Act  nor  the  resolution  which 
followed  it  met  with  opposition  in  Parliament 
or  adverse  comment  in  the  English  press.  The 
statement  contained  in  the  preamble  apparently 
justified  both  measures. 

In  America,  news  of  these  innovations  met 
with  a  different  reception.  The  threatened  de- 
struction of  the  magnificent  trade  whereby  her 
merchants  were  exchanging  not  only  the  native 
products  of  the  Colonies,  but  the  manufactures 
of  England  for  the  gold  and  silver  of  their  French 
and  Spanish  neighbours,  portended  financial  ruin. 
The  balance  of  trade  with  England  was  leaning 
heavily  in  favor  of  the  latter,  and  payment  for 
her  manufactures  purchased  by  the  Colonial  mer- 
chants had  been  only  possible  by  the  use  of  the 
coin  obtained  from  the  above-mentioned  sources. 
The  proposed  Stamp  Duty  was  disliked  also  for 
the  reason  that  the  people  of  this  country,  already 
impoverished  by  loss  of  the  revenue  derived  from 
their  commerce,  would  be  still  further  drained 
of  their  scanty  supplies  of  bullion,  which  neces- 
sarily would  be  forwarded  to  England  in  settle- 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

ment  for  the  stamps.  In  addition  to  the  fi- 
nancial distress  consequent  upon  the  carrying  out 
of  the  proposed  measures,  it  became  evident  that 
certain  clauses  in  the  bill  betokened  a  radical 
change  in  England's  ancient  policy  of  dealing 
with  her  Colonies,  which  up  to  this  time  had 
been  left  to  manage  their  own  internal  affairs 
according  to  the  provisions  of  their  charters.  An 
atmosphere  of  gloom  and  indignation  pervaded 
America  when  it  became  known  that  two  of  the 
privileges  which  had  been  so  long  enjoyed  there 
— namely,  that  of  trial  by  jury,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  her  own  fiscal  affairs — were  thenceforth 
to  be  put  in  jeopardy.  The  impossibility  up  to 
this  time  of  securing  the  conviction  before  a  jury 
of  their  own  countrymen  of  those  accused  of  the 
offense  of  smuggling,  was  given  as  the  reason  for 
the  insertion  in  the  Act  of  the  provision  that  of- 
fenders against  the  new  law  be  tried  in  the  Courts 
of  the  Vice-Admiralty,  the  Judges  of  which  owed 
their  livelihood  to  the  King's  pleasure. 

The  change  to  be  made  in  the  fiscal  policy 
was  contained  in  the  proposal  to  devote  the  funds 
raised  by  the  Act  to  the  maintenance  of  a  Civil 
List  in  America  with  its  attendant  dangers. 
Heretofore  the  rights  of  the  people  had  been  safe- 
guarded, owing  to  the  fact  that  the  salaries  of 
the  King's  appointees  were  largely  fixed  and  paid 
by  the  Colonial  Assemblies.  The  people  of  Bos- 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

ton  were  the  first  to  scent  the  threatened  danger 
to  their  liberties,  and  in  May  1764,  at  their  town 
meeting  voiced  their  protest  in  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions drawn  up  and  offered  by  Samuel  Adams,  and 
instructed  their  representatives  in  the  Assembly 
of  the  Province  to  urge  upon  that  body  similar 
action,  and  suggested  the  calling  upon  the  other 
Colonies  for  united  assistance.  The  dangers  lurk- 
ing in  the  bill  were  thus  graphically  described : 
"What  still  increases  our  apprehensions  is,  that 
these  unexpected  Proceedings  may  be  prepara- 
tory to  more  extensive  Taxations  upon  us.  For 
if  our  Trade  may  be  taxed,  why  not  our  Lands, 
the  Produce  of  our  lands,  and  in  short  every- 
thing we  possess  or  make  use  of?  This  we 
apprehend,  annihilates  our  Charter  Rights  to 
govern  and  tax  ourselves  ...  If  Taxes  are  laid 
upon  us  in  any  shape  without  our  having  a  legal 
representation  where  they  are  laid,  are  we  not 
reduced  from  the  Character  of  free  Subjects  to 
the  miserable  state  of  Tributary  Slaves?" 

The  Assembly  of  Massachusetts-Bay,  whose 
stately  home  appears  in  the  initial  letter  of  this 
chapter,  acted  promptly  and  forwarded  its  protest 
to  the  House  of  Commons.  This  action  was 
quickly  followed  by  similar  remonstrances  from 
the  Assemblies  of  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina,  and 
the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia. 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


News  of  the  state  of  political  feeling  in  the 
Colonies  was  slow  in  reaching  the  English  peo- 
ple, for  the  press  had  up  to  this  time  devoted  scant 
space  to  American  news.  To  the  great  majority 
of  Englishmen  the  forms  of  government  existing 
in  their  various  possessions,  and  the  temper  and 
traditions  of  the  people  were  almost  unknown. 
Exaggerated  conceptions  of  the  wealth  of  the 
American  people  prevailed  in  England,  due  to  the 
stories  brought  home  of  the  lavish  entertainment 
and  hospitality  showered  upon  those  who  had 
held  the  King's  commission  in  America.  The 
Colonies  were  considered  desirable  possessions 
simply  for  the  purposes  of  trade,  it  being  recog- 
nized that  much  of  England's  commercial  pros- 
perity was  due  to  the  great  and  growing  market 
they  furnished  for  the  manufactures  of  Leeds, 
Manchester,  Birmingham  and  Liverpool. 

During  the  year  of  the  passage  of  the  Act, 
the  information  given  in  the  English  press  con- 
cerning the  feeling  in  America  against  the  new 
legislation  merely  reflected  the  financial  depres- 
sion caused  thereby,  and  the  determination  of  the 
people  to  counteract  the  same  by  economy  and 
frugality.  In  an  article  dated  "Boston,  New  Eng- 
land, Sept.  f."  the  London  Chronicle  of  October 
i6th-i8th,  1764,  thus  described  the  situation  in 
Boston,  and  the  measures  considered  necessary 
for  adoption  nearly  a  month  previous  to  the  date 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

on  which  the  new  Act  was  to  go  into  effect: 
"Some  of  the  principal  Merchants  here  have  come 
into  a  resolution  to  curtail  many  superfluities  in 
dress ;  and  upwards  of  fifty  have  already  signed  a 
certain  agreement  for  that  purpose.  Lace,  ruffles, 
&c.,  are  to  be  entirely  laid  aside:  No  English 
cloths  to  be  purchased  but  at  a  fixed  price  :  The 
usual  manner  of  expressing  their  regard  and  sor- 
row for  a  deceased  friend  or  relative  by  covering 
themselves  in  black,  is  also  in  the  list  of  super- 
fluities, and  no  part  thereof  but  the  crape  in  the 
hat  is  to  be  retained ;  instead  of  which,  a  piece 
of  crape  is  to  be  tied  upon  the  arm,  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  military  gentlemen." 

Another  letter  which  appeared  in  the  same 
news-sheet  nearly  two  weeks  later  described  in 
the  following  words  the  state  of  mind  in  Vir- 
ginia and  noted  the  determination  then  forming 
to  manufacture  at  home  the  necessaries  hitherto 
purchased  in  England :  "  Extract  of  a  Letter  from 
a  Gentleman  at  Virginia,  to  his  friend  in  Bristol, 
Sept.  4.  '  Melancholy  and  uneasiness  are  visible 
in  most  countenances  ;  and  happy  is  the  man  that 
can  keep  his  effects  together.  Tobacco  is  low, 
and  grain  of  all  sorts  much  fallen  ;  from  whence 
then  is  to  come  our  relief?  It  can  happen,  in 
my  opinion,  only  from  the  strictest  frugality  in 
our  affairs.  Hemp  and  flax  are  the  two  objects 
that  are  looked  on,  as  if  they  would  deliver 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


us ;  and,  so  they  may,  in  a  great  measure  but 
something  else  is  necessary.  I  am  told  the  col- 
ony of  Maryland  has  planted  little  tobacco  this 
year,  and  I  believe  much  less  will  be  planted 
here  another  year.  The  acts  of  parliament  have 
made  such  impressions  on  the  minds  of  the 
northward  people,  and  the  men  of  war  so  strictly 
enforce  them,  that  there  is  an  entire  stagnation 
of  trade.  Nothing  do  they  talk  of  but  their 
own  manufactures.  The  downfall  of  England, 
and  the  rise  of  America,  is  sung  by  the  common 
ballad  singers  about  the  streets,  as  if,  in  a  little 
time,  we  should  supply  ourselves  with  most  of 
the  necessaries  we  used  to  take  from  England/  ' 
Another  letter  from  Boston,  published  in  the 
same  newspaper  in  the  latter  part  of  November, 
informed  its  readers  that  "  the  disposition  seems 
to  continue  in  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  and 
the  neighbouring  governments,  to  cloath  them- 
selves with  their  own  manufactures.  At  Hemp- 
stead,  on  Long  Island,  in  the  province  of  New 
York,  a  company  of  gentlemen  have  set  up  a  new 
woolen  manufactory,  and  have  given  notice  to 
gentlemen,  shopkeepers,  and  others,  of  any  of  the 
provinces,  that  by  sending  proper  patterns  of  any 
colour,  they  may  be  supplied  with  broad-cloths, 
equal  in  fineness,  colour  and  goodness,  and  cheap- 
er than  any  imported:  The  proprietors  gave  good 
encouragement  to  persons  who  are  in  any  way 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP   ACT   LEGISLATION 

versed  in  the  woolen  manufactures,  such  as  wool- 
combers,  weavers,  clothiers,  shearers,  dyers,  spin- 
ners, carders,  or  understanding  any  branch  of  the 
broadcloth,  blankets  or  shroud  manufactory. — 
There  are  many  articles  of  dress  manufactured 
in  this  government,  which  if  wore  would  be  a 
great  saving  thereto,  particularly  knit  stockings, 
leather  habits  for  working,  shoes,  &c.  more  es- 
pecially shoes  for  women,  which  are  made  at 
Lynn,  and  exceed  in  strength  and  beauty,  any 
that  are  usually  imported  from  London." 

Practically  all  that  a  reader  of  the  London 
Chronicle  in  1 764  could  have  learned  of  Ameri- 
can sentiment  towards  the  new  legislation  is  con- 
tained in  the  above  extracts.  A  great  majority  of 
the  news  items  from  America  merely  recounted 
the  troubles  with  the  Indians  on  the  frontiers, 
maritime  disasters  and  domestic  news  of  no  pol- 
itical import.  The  wisdom  of  the  passage  of 
the  Act  was  considered  simply  a  matter  of  politi- 
cal economy  by  the  average  Englishman.  The 
constitutional  rights  therein  involved  were  as  yet 
unconsidered. 

The  Stamp  Act,  after  strenuous  opposition 
by  Pitt,  Barre,  Conway  and  Camden,  was  passed 
by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  and  received  the 
royal  assent  on  the  2  2nd  of  March  1 765.  Neither 
the  debates  nor  the  contents  of  the  bill  appear 
to  have  awakened  any  popular  interest.  The  few 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

letters  from  America  which  were  published  in 
the  press  during  the  first  quarter  of  that  year 
merely  recounted  the  successful  starting  of  in- 
dustries in  the  various  Colonies,  with  the  fol- 
lowing exception  which  appeared  in  the  London 
Chronicle  of  January  1 5th—  1 7th,  1765,  and  was 
the  only  reference  in  this  influential  newspaper  to 
the  fact  that  constitutional  as  well  as  economical 
questions  were  involved  in  the  new  legislation  for 
the  Colonies.  The  great  masses  of  England  were 
still  not  cognizant  of  the  vital  question  at  stake. 
"  Extract  of  a  letter  from  Providence  (in  Rhode 
Island}  Dec.  8.  'The  general  assembly  of  this 
colony,  which  sat  here  this  week,  rose  last  night ; 
having  first  ordered  an  address,  which  had  be- 
fore been  prepared  by  a  Committee,  to  be  sent  to 
his  Majesty:  praying  that  our  trade  may  be  re- 
stored to  its  former  condition ;  that  courts  of 
Admiralty  may  not  have  more  extensive  powers 
in  the  colonies,  than  the  law  gives  them  in  Brit- 
ain; that  stamp  duties  and  internal  taxes  be  not 
laid  on  the  people  here,  without  their  own  con- 
sent; and,  that  the  colonies  be  not  any  way  de- 
prived of  their  just  and  long  enjoyed  rights.' ' 

In  the  latter  half  of  1765,  the  questions  at 
issue  received  somewhat  more  attention  in  the 
newspapers.  A  very  lengthy  and  convincing  ex- 
position of  the  folly  displayed  in  the  policy  of 
taxing  the  American  Colonies  and  the  damage 


OPINION  OF  THE   STAMP   ACT  LEGISLATION 

caused  thereby  to  the  trade  of  both  England  and 
America,  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  Aug- 
ust ^th-i/th,  and  of  August  24th-27th,  1765, 
over  the  signature  of  "MARCUS  AURELIUS" 
and  under  the  heading  of  "A  Dialogue  between  a 
North  American  and  a  Courtier"  and  evidently 
attracted  considerable  attention.  It  purported  to 
give  an  account  of  a  debate  which  took  place  by 
appointment  between  a  gentleman  from  the  Col- 
onies and  a  man  of  influence  in  Court  circles. 
The  discussion  was  conducted  in  terms  of  the 
greatest  friendliness,  and  the  issue  of  the  debate 
hinged  entirely  upon  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  taxation  of  the  Colonies  was  necessary  and 
beneficial  to  the  prosperity  and  trade  of  both 
countries.  The  debate  closed  with  a  complete 
demolition  of  the  arguments  advanced  in  favour 
of  the  taxation  policy.  The  closing  paragraph 
is  here  quoted  for  the  purpose  of  showing  the 
view  of  this  ill-fated  innovation  then  accepted 
by  many  Englishmen. 

"  Courtier.  I  am  perfectly  of  your  opinion, 
that  an  army  in  the  colonies,  and  for  the  support 
of  which  these  duties  and  taxes  are  imposed,  is 
entirely  useless,  therefore  with  the  removal  of 
the  one,  the  other  ought  to  vanish.  Besides, 
if  the  Crown  collects  the  little  money  you  have 
for  taxes,  the  merchant  here  must  go  without 
it.  This  is  already  severely  felt  by  them,  and 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  manufacturers  have  now  neither  orders  for 
goods  nor  remittances  for  debts,  and  this  evil  it 
is  apparent  will  be  an  increasing  one,  unless  the 
cause  of  it  is  removed.  You  may  therefore  rest 
assured  that  I  shall  use  my  influence,  and  make 
my  utmost  efforts  toward  the  repealing,  or  at 
least  amending  these  acts,  which  I  think  are  big 
with  the  most  dangerous  consequences  to  this 
kingdom,  as  well  as  to  the  colonies." 

From  this  time  on  the  tone  of  the  letters 
from  America  began  to  change.  Less  stress  was 
laid  upon  the  paralysis  of  trade.  The  resent- 
ment of  the  people  against  the  attack  upon  their 
constitutional  right  of  self-government  was  be- 
coming the  predominant  feature  of  the  "Amer- 
ican News."  Accounts  soon  appeared  of  the 
events  in  Boston  on  the  "  Fourteenth  of  August," 
on  which  day  effigies  of  the  Stamp  Officer  and 
Lord  Bute  were  paraded  through  the  streets  es- 
corted by  "  a  great  concourse  of  people,  some 
of  the  highest  standing."  The  burning  of  the 
suspected  Stamp  Office,  and  the  enforced  resig- 
nation of  the  Stamp  Officers  were  also  described 
in  the  account  of  this  day's  doings. 

The  appended  "extract  of  a  letter  from  Eos- 
ton  in  New  England"  written  two  days  before 
the  uprising  of  the  Bostonians,  called  attention 
to  the  activity  of  the  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  at  Prov- 
idence. This  name  was  now  being  enthusias- 

14 


tically  and  rapidly  adopted  throughout  the  Col- 
onies by  those  who  were  active  in  their  efforts 
to  protect  their  constitutional  liberties.  It  owed 
its  origin  to  Isaac  Barre's  characterization  of  the 
Americans  as  "Sons  of  Liberty,"  when  speaking 
in  the  House  of  Commons  against  the  passage 
of  the  Stamp  Act. 

"  We  hear  from  Providence,  in  the  Colony 
of  Rhode  Island,  that  the  Freemen  of  that  town 
being  lately  called  to  confer  on  such  matters  as 
should  appear  to  them  necessary  relative  to  the 
STAMP-ACT,*  whereby  the  Liberties,  the  dar- 
ling boast  of  the  English  North  American  Sub- 
ject, which  was  once  deem'd  indefeasible,  must 
be  greatly  abridg'd,  if  not  totally  annihilated; 
they  accordingly  met  for  the  aforesaid  purpose, 
and  unanimously  appointed  a  Committee  to  pre- 
pare instructions  suitable  to  be  given  their  Rep- 
resentatives for  their  conduct  in  the  next  gene- 
eral  Assembly,  on  this  truly  alarming  occasion, 
and  that  they  are  to  be  laid  before  the  town  for 
their  approbation  to-morrow :  at  which  time 
those  Sons  of  Liberty  are  to  convene  again  for 
the  noblest  of  all  causes,  their  Country's  Good. 
— A  proceeding  this  that  conveys  the  most  lively 
idea  of  principles  nobly  patriotic,  and  which  will, 
it  is  to  be  wish'd,  serve  as  an  example  to  other 

* ' « Instead  of  voted  aid, 

Free,  cordial,  large,  a  never  failing  source, 
The  cumbrous  imposition  followed  harsh." 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

towns  to  exert  themselves  at  this  crisis,  and  to  re- 
mind them,  that  they  are  entitled  to  all  the  priv- 
ileges of  British  Subjects,  as  long  as  they  are  de- 
nominated such,  to  bear  in  utter  abhorrence  the 
name  without  the  substance." 

The  same  week  brought  advices  of  the  mem- 
orable resolutions  passed  by  the  Burgesses  of  Vir- 
ginia, an  account  of  which  may  be  found  in 
Chapter  V.  News  of  the  resignation  of  the 
Stamp  Officers,  both  voluntary  and  enforced,  fol- 
lowed in  rapid  succession.  The  English  people 
were  gradually  being  awakened  to  the  fact  that 
all  America  was  aroused.  A  very  clever  series 
of  articles  on  the  American  question  appeared 
in  the  London  Chronicle  during  October  and 
November  1765,  in  which,  over  the  signature  of 
"  RATIONALES,"  the  oppressions  from  which 
the  Americans  were  suffering  were  discussed  and 
attention  was  repeatedly  drawn  to  the  union  in 
behalf  of  the  common  defense,  then  being  agi- 
tated in  the  Colonies.  The  Colonials  were  lauded 
as  being  a  people  who  "  have  a  strong  passion 
for  freedom,  which  is  here  lost  in  a  lust  for  pleas- 
ures the  most  contemptible  in  their  natures ;  so 
that  they  idolize  those  blessings  which  from  de- 
generacy we  disregard.  It  can  never,  therefore, 
be  wisdom  in  us  to  kindle  in  them  a  fire  of  patri- 
otism in  opposition  to  ourselves,  which  in  its  wild- 
est excuses  plain  reason  should  convince  us  would 

16 


OPINION  OF  THE  STAMP   ACT   LEGISLATION 

never  be  destitute  of  exterior  support,  as  there  is 
not  a  trading  state  of  Europe  which  must  not 
wish  to  see  North  America  in  a  state  of  inde- 
pendence, or  which  we  can  rationally  think 
would  not  contribute  every  means  in  their  power 
to  her  establishment  therein :  such  an  event,  as 
we  may  rationally  conclude,  being  much  more 
desirable  to  rival  states  to  Great  Britain  than  to 
the  North  Americans  themselves,  because  with 
the  downfall  of  her  American  empire  there  must 
become  a  complete  downfall  of  our  power  and 
prosperity,  as  we  should  then  have  our  chief 
pursuits  to  begin  anew  from  the  time  of  the  ref- 
ormation under  tenfold  disadvantages  and  with 
tenfold  imbecility." 

Other  letters  written  by  Englishmen  con- 
stantly appeared  in  the  press  calling  attention  to 
the  seriousness  of  the  situation  in  America,  pre- 
dicting that  at  some  future  date  the  American 
Colonies,  which  were  constantly  increasing  in 
population  and  each  year  becoming  less  dependent 
upon  Great  Britain,  would  be  OBLIGED  to  cast 
off  the  domination  now  thrust  upon  them,  and 
giving  warning  that  England's  old-time  foe,  the 
kingdom  of  France,  would  gladly  give  assist- 
ance to  any  such  effort. 

This  line  of  reasoning  rilled  many  a  column  in 
the  English  press  during  the  next  ten  years,  and 
was  well  illustrated  by  a  semi-allegorical  mez- 

17 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

zotint  cartoon,  a  reproduction  of  which  appears 
upon  the  opposite  page.  In  it  Britannia,  seated 
on  an  island,  is  pictured  in  the  act  of  self-de- 
struction. Lying  at  her  feet,  and  piercing  a  lib- 
erty cap,  may  be  seen  her  spear — emblematic  of 
Great  Britain's  war  upon  the  freedom  and  con- 
stitutional rights  of  her  subjects.  To  the  right, 
and  upon  the  mainland,  earnestly  watching  this 
proceeding  appears  a  cock,  the  emblem  by  which 
France  had  long  been  symbolized.  The  coming 
war  with  its  attendant  horrors  was  suggested  by 
the  insertion  of  the  naval  conflict  in  the  back- 
ground. Of  the  two  vessels  in  close  combat  one 
flies  the  Cross  of  St.  George,  the  other  a  flag 
which  in  no  way  bears  resemblance  to  that  of 
any  nation  then  in  existence. 

The  keen  interest  taken  by  the  French  in  the 
controversy  then  raging  was  also  alluded  to  in 
many  a  fable  and  anecdote,  which  appeared  in  the 
English  press  during  the  next  few  years,  with 
a  moral  similar  to  that  contained  in  the  extract 
from  the  London  Chronicle  of  March  22nd— 26th, 
1766,  given  below: 

ANECDOTE 

"A  young  English  Lord  who  was  lately  at 
Paris,  having  asked  a  French  Nobleman  of  dis- 
tinction there,  in  the  Government  of  his  Coun- 
try, whether  they  had  heard  of  the  Commotions 
which  the  Stamp-Act  had  occasioned  in  North 

ii 


OPINION  OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

America  ;  he  replied  they  had,  and  were  in  great 
fears  concerning  them.  *  Fears  ?  Nous  craig- 
nonsy  que  r  Angleterre  s'  accommodera  trop  tot  avec 
ses  Colonies!  ' 

On  November  i6th,  1765,  the  London  Chron- 
icle devoted  its  opening  columns  to  the  follow- 
ing letters,  which  pointed  out  the  mental  atti- 
tude of  Parliament  and  drew  attention  to  the 
dangerous  state  of  the  public  mind  in  the  Colo- 
nies : 

"  To  the  PRINTER  of  the  LONDON  CHRONICLE. 
"SIR, 

"  I  make  no  apology  for  presenting  to  the 
Public,  thro'  the  channel  of  your  useful  Paper,  the 
following  letters,  as  they  contain  the  sentiments 
of  two  Gentlemen  of  acknowledged  abilities  and 
integrity  upon  a  subject  which  is  of  the  last  Con- 
sequence to  the  peace,  safety,  union,  dignity,  and 
stability  of  the  British  Empire. 

«  Your's,          W.  S. 

"  Extract  of  a  Letter  from  a  North  American  in 
London,  to  his  Friend  in  America,  dated  "July  II9 


"  '  Depend  upon  it,  my  good  Friend,  every 
possible  step  was  taken  to  prevent  the  passing  of 
the  Stamp  Act.  But  the  tide  was  too  strong 
against  us.  The  nation  was  provok'd  by  Ameri- 
can claims  of  independence,  and  all  parties  join'd 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


in  resolving  by  this  act  to  settle  the  point.  We 
might  as  well  have  hindered  the  sun's  setting. 
But  since  it  is  down,  my  Friend,  and  it  may  be 
long  ere  it  rises  again,  let  us  make  as  good  a  night 
of  it  as  we  can.  We  may  still  light  candles.  Fru- 
gality and  Industry  will  go  a  great  way  towards 
indemnifying  us.  Idleness  and  Pride  tax  with  a 
heavier  hand  than  Kings  and  Parliaments.  If 
we  can  get  rid  of  the  former,  we  may  easily  bear 
the  latter.  Our  country  produces,  or  is  capable 
of  producing,  all  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  wast- 
ing superfluities  come  from  hence.  Let  us  have 
but  the  wisdom  to  be  content  awhile  with  our 
own,  and  this  country  will  soon  feel,  that  its  loss 
in  point  of  commerce,  is  infinitely  more  than  its 
gain  in  taxes.' 

"  The  ANSWER,  dated  Philadelphia,  24  Sept. 

" '  Yes,  my  friend,  I  grant  that  "  Idleness  and 
Pride  tax  with  a  heavier  hand  than  Kings  and 
Parliaments,"  and  that  frugality  and  industry  will 
go  a  great  way  towards  indemnifying  us.'  But 
the  misfortune  is,  the  very  thing  that  renders  in- 
dustry necessary  cuts  the  sinews  of  it.  With  in- 
dustry and  frugality  the  subjects  of  eastern  tyrants 
might  be  wealthier  than  those  of  England  or 
Holland.  But  who  will  labour  or  save  who  has 
not  a  security  in  his  property  ?  When  people 
are  taxed  by  their  own  representatives,  though 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP   ACT   LEGISLATION 

the  tax  is  high  they  pay  it  chearfully,  from  a  con- 
fidence that  no  more  than  enough  is  required, 
and  that  a  due  regard  is  had  to  the  ability  of  the 
giver.  But  when  taxes  are  laid  merely  to  "  set- 
tle the  point  of  independence ,"  and  when  the  quan- 
tity of  the  tax  depends  on  the  caprice  of  those 
who  have  the  superiority,  and  who  will  doubtless 
lay  it  heavier  in  order  to  bring  down  the  spirits 
or  weaken  the  power  of  those  who  claim  inde- 
pendence, what  encouragement  is  there  to  labour 
or  save  ?  The  wealth  we  thereby  acquire  will 
be  a  new  motive,  which  fear  or  avarice  will  sug- 
gest, to  tax  us  anew.  No  wonder  then  if  people 
will  chuse  to  live  poor  and  lazy  rather  than  la- 
bour to  enrich  their  taxmasters,  or  furnish  mat- 
ter for  new  oppression.  There  never  was  any 
mention  of  the  colonies  aiming  at  independence, 
till  the  ministry  began  to  abridge  them  of  their 
liberties.  I  will  venture  to  affirm,  and  to  you  I 
can  appeal  for  the  truth  of  what  I  say,  that  his- 
tory cannot  shew  a  people  so  numerous,  so  far 
removed  from  the  seat  of  Royalty,  who  were  so 
loyal,  so  attached  to  their  King,  and  who  at  the 
same  time  had  such  true  sentiments  of  liberty, 
as  the  British  American  Colonies.  How  long 
this  will  continue  God  knows.  The  Sun  of  Lib- 
erty is  indeed  fast  setting,  if  not  down  already, 
in  the  American  Colonies  :  But  I  much  fear  in- 
stead of  the  candles  you  mention  being  lighted, 


THE    BOSTON    PORT   BILL 


you  will  hear  of  the  works  of  darkness.  They 
are  in  general  alarmed  to  the  last  degree.  The 
Colonies  expect,  and  with  reason  expect,  that 
some  regard  shall  be  had  to  their  liberties  and 
privileges,  as  well  as  trade.  They  cannot  bring 
themselves  to  believe,  nor  can  they  see  how  Eng- 
land with  reason  or  justice  could  expect,  that 
they  should  have  encountered  the  horrors  of  a 
defeat,  borne  the  attacks  of  barbarous  savages, 
and,  at  the  expence  of  their  blood  and  treasure, 
settled  this  country  to  the  great  emolument  of 
England,  and  after  all  quietly  submit  to  be  de- 
prived of  everything  an  Englishman  has  been 
taught  to  hold  dear.  It  is  not  property  only  we 
contend  for.  Our  Liberty  and  most  essential 
privileges  are  struck  at :  Arbitrary  Courts  are 
set  over  us,  and  trials  by  juries  taken  away:  The 
Press  is  so  restricted  that  we  cannot  complain : 
An  army  of  mercenaries  threatened  to  be  bill- 
eted on  us :  The  sources  of  our  trade  stopped  ; 
and,  to  compleat  our  ruin,  the  little  property  we 
had  acquired,  taken  from  us,  without  even  al- 
lowing us  the  merit  of  giving  it ;  I  really  dread 
the  consequence.  The  parliament  insist  on  a 
power  over  all  the  liberties  and  privileges  claimed 
by  the  colonies,  and  hence  require  a  blind  obe- 
dience and  acquiescence  in  whatever  they  do: 
Should  the  behaviour  of  the  colonies  happen 
not  to  square  with  these  sovereign  notions  (as  I 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

much  fear  it  will  not),  what  remains  but  by  vio- 
lence to  compel  them  to  obedience.  Violence 
will  beget  resentment,  and  provoke  to  acts  never 
dreamt  of:  But  I  will  not  anticipate  evil ;  I 
pray  God  avert  it. 

"  I  congratulate  you  on  the  change  in  the 
ministry :  We  hope  for  much  good  from  it.  For 
such  seems  the  state  of  the  British  constitution 
at  present,  that  from  them  we  are  to  look  for 
good  or  ill.  Heretofore  we  have  been  taught 
to  look  for  redress  from  another  quarter.  I  am, 

"  Dear  Sir,  Your  affectionate  Friend,  &c.' ' 

It  soon  became  known  that  the  two  corre- 
spondents were  Charles  Thomson,  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  the  popular  Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  so 
greatly  loved,  respected,  and  sought  after  in  Brit- 
ish scientific  and  literary  circles.  Dr.  Franklin 
was  then  holding  the  royal  appointment  of  Dep- 
uty Postmaster  General  for  the  Colonies  and  at 
the  same  time  was  the  duly  accredited  agent  in 
London  for  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania.  His 
portrait,  made  by  his  friend  Josiah  Wedgwood, 
appears  in  the  engraving  which  ends  this  chap- 
ter. 

It  was  fast  becoming  recognized  in  England 
that  the  future  of  Great  Britain  herself  was  being 
imperilled  by  the  differences  which  had  arisen 
over  the  right  of  taxation  claimed  by  Parliament 


THE   BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

and  denied  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Colonies. 
The  gravity  of  the  situation,  and  the  disastrous 
results  to  all  Englishmen  which  would  result 
from  a  clash  between  the  two  peoples,  were 
strikingly  summed  up  in  the  following  lines, 
which  first  headed  a  column  of  the  London  Chron- 
icle of  November  i6th-i9th,  1765,  and  which 
appeared  at  irregular  intervals  during  the  next 
nine  years  in  the  same  prominent  position  in 
this  newspaper,  as  well  as  in  Lloyd's  Evening 
Post  (London),  and  in  the  Middlesex  "Journal: 

TO    WHOM    IT    MAY    CONCERN, 
MEN    OF    ENGLAND,    THE    COLONIES,    BRETHEREN. 

Confider  well  the  Reverfe  of  a  Dutch  medal,  ftruck  in 

their  early  troubles. 
"  Two  earthen  vafes,  floating  in  the  waters.     Infcription. 

Frangimur  ft  Collidimur" 

The  medal  to  which  this  exhortation  re- 
ferred, an  engraving  of  which  appears  in  the 
headband  of  this  chapter,  was  struck  in  1587  at 
the  time  when  the  jealousies  between  the  two 
factions  of  the  town  of  Horn  threatened  the 
very  existence  of  its  government  and  freedom. 

The  simile  was  a  forcible  one  and  readily 
comprehended,  and  the  inscription,  "  If  we  are 
forced  together,  we  are  shattered,"  was  truly 
prophetic  of  the  separation  which  took  place  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  the  Colonies,  which  fin- 

26 


OPINION   OF  THE  STAMP   ACT  LEGISLATION 

ally  ended  the  long-drawn-out  contest  between 
the  King  and  his  transatlantic  subjects. 

The  news  of  the  action  of  the  Congress  of 
the  Colonies  at  New  York ;  their  protest  against 
the  Stamp  Act  and  the  principle  involved  there- 
in; the  stories  of  the  destruction  of  the  stamps 
(an  engraving  of  one  of  these  ends  the  introduc- 
tory chapter  of  this  volume)  at  many  places  in 
the  Colonies,  and  the  text  of  the  many  agree- 
ments made  against  the  non-importation  of  Brit- 
ish goods,  were  printed  in  the  press  simultaneously 
with  accounts  of  the  distress  existing  in  the  manu- 
facturing centers  of  England,  resulting  from  the 
loss  of  American  trade. 

Portions  of  the  original  charters  granted  to 
the  Colonies  of  Massachusetts-Bay,  Maryland 
and  Virginia  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  and 
were  cited  as  demonstrating  that  the  inhabitants 
of  North  America  had  long  been  entitled  to  the 
same  rights  and  privileges  enjoyed  by  those  who 
resided  in  England.  A  clearer  understanding  of 
the  American  question  was  at  last  obtainable 
from  the  news-sheets,  and  the  year  1765  closed 
with  commercial  England  prepared  for  and  de- 
manding the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  A  bill 
repealing  this  Act,  which,  during  its  short  life 
had  been  so  fraught  with  disaster  to  both  Eng- 
land and  America,  was  finally  passed  by  both 
Houses  of  Parliament  on  March  I7th,  1766,  and 

*7 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  peril  which  threatened  the  nation  seemed 
averted.  In  thanksgiving  therefor,  and  in  grati- 
tude for  the  active  energies  displayed  by  Wil- 
liam Pitt  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  bill,  the 
following  remarkable  leader  appeared  in  the 
London  Chronicle  the  next  day  and  many  times 
thereafter,  during  the  next  few  months: 

MARCH     XVIII,     MDCCLXV 

ENGLISHMEN,     SCOTTISHMEN,    IRISHMEN, 
COLONISTS,    BRETHEREN, 

Rejoice  in  the  wifdom,  fortitude  of  one  man,  which  hath 
faved  You  from  civil-war  and  your  enemies !  Erecl:  a  Statue 
to  that  Man  in  the  Metropolis  of  your  dominions  !  Place 
a  garland  of  oak  leaves  on  the  Pedeftal  and  grave  in  it 
CONCORD 

The  above  exhortation  has  been  here  re- 
printed, for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  that 
in  England,  even  at  the  time  this  leader  ap- 
peared, it  was  recognized  that  a  contest  between 
Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies  would  partake 
of  the  nature  of  a  civil  war,  the  horrors  of  which 
were  only  prevented  by  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act.  It  also  tells  us  of  the  added  esteem  in 
which  William  Pitt,  already  a  popular  hero,  was 
held,  and  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  owed  to  this 
great  statesman  not  only  by  the  Colonials,  whose 
burdens  he  had  lightened,  but  also  by  the  people 
of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland.  In  addition, 
this  recognition  of  Pitt's  services  to  the  nation 


OPINION  OF  THE   STAMP   ACT   LEGISLATION 

undoubtedly  first  suggested  to  the  people  of 
America  the  idea  of  erecting  statues  in  his  hon- 
our in  their  cities,  for  the  same  packets  which 
brought  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act  brought  also  copies  of  the  London  news- 
paper which  had  just  proposed  this  method  of 
honouring  Pitt.  The  English  people  quickly 
learned  of  America's  desire  to  perpetuate  the 
memory  of  Pitt's  services  from  a  letter,  which 
appeared  in  the  press,  written  from  New  York 
only  two  days  after  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  was  received  there,  which  mentioned 
the  fact  "that  the  merchants  and  principal  in- 
habitants of  that  city  have  opened  a  subscription 
for  erecting  an  elegant  statue  of  the  Right  Hon. 
William  Pitt,  Esq." 

Public  sentiment,  however,  demanded  that 
the  erection  of  the  statue  be  made  an  official  act 
of  the  Province.  News  of  the  quick  response 
of  the  Assembly,  preceded  by  their  substantial 
expression  of  loyalty  and  gratitude  to  their  King, 
appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  August  2nd- 
5th,  1766:  "From  the  JOURNAL  of  the  General 
Assembly  of  NEW  YORK.  Die  Veneris,  June  2O. 
The  house  taking  into  consideration  the  innu- 
merable and  singular  benefits  received  from  our 
most  gracious  Sovereign,  since  the  commence- 
ment of  his  auspicious  reign,  during  which  they 
have  been  protected  from  the  fury  of  a  cruel, 

29 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

merciless,  and  savage  enemy;  and  lately  from 
the  utmost  confusion  and  distress,  by  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act:  In  testimony  therefore  of 
their  gratitude  and  the  reverence  due  to  his 
sacred  person  and  character, 

"  Resolved,  That  this  House  will  make  pro- 
vision for  an  Equestrian  statue  of  his  present 
Majesty,  our  most  gracious  Sovereign,  to  be 
erected  in  the  City  of  New  York,  to  perpetuate 
to  the  latest  posterity  the  deep  sense  this  Colony 
has  of  the  eminent  and  singular  blessings  derived 
from  him,  during  his  most  auspicious  reign. 

"Mr.  Cruger  moved,  that  in  consideration 
of  the  many  eminent  and  essential  services  done 
the  Northern  Colonies,  by  the  Right  Hon.  Wil- 
liam Pitt  Esq ;  but  particularly  in  promoting  the 
Repeal  of  the  late  Stamp  Act,  and  to  perpetuate 
to  the  latest  posterity  the  grateful  sense  this 
Colony  entertains  on  that  account,  provision 
might  be  made  for  erecting  an  elegant  statue  of 
him  in  brass:  whereupon  it  was  resolved,  that 
this  House  will  provide  ways  and  means  to  pro- 
cure and  pay  for  a  statue  of  the  Right  Hon. 
William  Pitt,  Esq;  accordingly. " 

Other  letters  soon  told  of  similar  action  con- 
templated by  the  Assemblies  of  Massachusetts- 
Bay,  Maryland  and  South  Carolina.  The  orders 
for  the  execution  of  the  statues  of  Pitt  voted  by 
the  people  of  New  York  and  South  Carolina  were 

3° 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

entrusted  to  the  same  sculptor.  In  1 770,  and  at 
a  time  when  the  Ministry  were  again  oppress- 
ing the  Colonies,  the  following  description  of 
the  statue  of  Pitt,  which  had  been  ordered  by 
the  South  Carolina  Assembly  and  then  just 
completed,  and  the  accompanying  inscription 
for  its  pedestal,  appeared  in  the  London  news- 
papers : 

"The  following  inscription  is  on  a  pedestal 
on  which  is  intended  to  erect  a  colossal  statue 
of  the  new  Lord  Chatham  in  the  Ciceronian 
character  and  habiliment,  which  is  now  going 
to  be  sent  to  South  Carolina.  The  action  is 
spirited,  and  the  execution  masterly  treated  by 
Mr.  Wilton,  the  statuary :  « In  grateful  memory 
of  his  services  to  his  country  in  general,  and  to 
America  in  particular,  the  Commons  House  of 
Assembly  of  South  Carolina  unanimously  voted 
this  statue  of  the  Right  Hon.  WILLIAM  PITT 
Esq.  who  gloriously  exerted  himself  in  defend- 
ing the  freedom  of  the  Americans,  the  True 
Sons  of  England,  by  promoting  a  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  in  the  year  1766.  Time  shall  sooner 
destroy  this  mark  of  their  esteem,  than  erase 
from  their  minds  the  just  sense  of  his  patriotic 
virtue.' " 

The  two  statues  were  almost  identical  in  ap- 
pearance, both  being  of  white  marble  from  the 
same  model,  and  mounted  upon  brick  pedestals 

s* 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

with  white  marble  tablets  and  facings.  The 
wording  of  the  inscription  upon  the  pedestal  of 
the  New  York  statue  (an  engraving  of  which  as 
it  originally  appeared  ends  Chapter  IV)  is  pre- 
served by  the  following  account  of  the  unveil- 
ing which  appeared  in  the  New  York  "Journal  or 
the  General  Advertiser  of  September  I3th,  1770: 

Laft  Friday  the  STATUE  of  the  Right  Hon.  WILLIAM 
PITT,  Esq;  Earl  of  Chatham,  was  fixed  on  the  Pedeftal  ere&ed 
for  it  in  Wall-Street,  amidft  the  Acclamations  of  a  great 
Number  of  the  Inhabitants.  The  Statue  is  of  fine  white  Mar- 
ble, the  Habit  Roman,  the  right  Hand  holds  a  Scroll,  partly 
open,  whereon  we  read,  ARTICULI  MAGNA  CHARTA, 
LIBERTATUM  ;  the  left  Hand  is  extended,  the  Figure  being 
in  the  Attitude  of  one  delivering  an  Oration.  On  the  South 
Side  of  the  Pedeftal,  the  following  Infcription  is  cut  on  a 
Table  of  white  Marble. 

THIS    STATUE 

O  F    T  H  E 
RIGHT    HONOURABLE 

WILLIAM     PITT, 
EARL    OF    CHATHAM, 

WAS     ERECTED 

AS  A  PUBLIC  TESTIMONY  OF  THE  GRATEFUL 

SENSE  THE  COLONY  OF  NEW-YORK 

RETAINS    OF    THE    MANY  EMINENT 

SERVICES    HE   RENDERED    AMERICA, 

PARTICULARLY  IN  PROMOTING  THE  REPEAL 

OF  THE  STAMP-ACT. 
ANNO  DOM.    M,DCC,LXX. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  this  connection 
that  the  statues  of  the  King  and  Pitt  were  voted 

3* 


OPINION   OF   THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

on  the  same  day  by  the  Assembly ;  were  carried 
to  New  York  from  London  in  the  same  vessel 
four  years  later,  and  were,  in  the  year  when 
Independence  was  declared,  pulled  down  by  the 
opposing  factions — the  King  being  moulded  into 
bullets  to  send  against  his  own  troops,  and  the 
Minister  wantonly  decapitated  by  the  King's 
forces,  in  order  to  vent  their  spleen  against  a 
fellow-countryman  whom  their  enemies  revered 
as  a  friend  and  ally. 

A  witness  to  the  contemporary  recognition  in 
England  of  the  grateful  appreciation  by  America 
of  William  Pitt's  efforts  in  her  behalf,  is  af- 
forded us  by  a  Chelsea-Derby  statuette  moulded 
by  England's  greatest  manufacturer  of  porcelain, 
William  Duesbury.  An  engraving  of  this  statu- 
ette is  given  at  the  head  of  the  following  chapter. 
In  this  America  is  shown  kneeling  before  Pitt 
in  an  attitude  suggestive  of  the  entreaty  for  jus- 
tice made  by  the  radicals  among  her  citizens,  as 
well  as  of  the  prayer  for  mercy  against  the  unbear- 
able taxation  uttered  by  those,  who,  because  of 
loyalty  to  their  King  and  mistaken  faith  in  his 
kindness,  had  kept  out  of  the  political  arena. 

The  delight  with  which  the  news  of  the  re- 
peal of  the  Stamp  Act  was  welcomed  in  those 
portions  of  England,  where  the  curtailment  of 
their  American  market  had  resulted  in  financial 
depression  with  its  attendant  distresses,  was  simi- 

33 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

lar  to  the  jubilation  exhibited  in  the  City  of 
London  on  the  same  occasion  and  noted  in  the 
issue  of  the  London  Chronicle  of  March  i8th- 
2oth,  1766,  in  the  ensuing  paragraph:  "A  great 
number  of  Merchants  met  yesterday  at  the 
King's  Arms  Tavern  in  Cornhill,  from  whence 
they  went  in  their  coaches  to  Westminster,  to 
express  their  satisfaction  on  the  royal  assent 
being  given  to  the  bill  for  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act.  The  bells  rang  in  every  part  of  the 
city  on  the  same  occasion  ;  and  in  the  afternoon 
the  Merchants  had  a  grand  entertainment  at  the 
above  Tavern,  at  which  were  present  many  per- 
sons of  distinction.  At  night  many  coffee  houses, 
and  other  houses  in  the  city  were  finely  illum- 
inated, and  other  demonstrations  of  joy  were 
shown  on  this  event." 

Although  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  was  immediately  dispatched  to  Amer- 
ica, it  did  not  reach  there  until  about  the  middle 
of  May,  the  season  of  the  year  militating  against 
fast  voyages  by  the  packets.  The  glad  tidings 
spread  like  wild-fire,  and  celebrations  were  in 
order  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Descriptions 
of  these  scenes  of  jubilee,  and  incidentally  of 
the  frequent  damage  to  life  and  property  therein 
incurred  through  the  careless  handling  of  ex- 
plosives, quickly  reached  the  people  of  England 
through  the  medium  of  their  newspapers,  and 

34 


OPINION  OF  THE   STAMP  ACT  LEGISLATION 

graphically  pictured  the  exultation  the  American 
people  displayed  in  their  joy  over  the  relief  from 
legislation  which  they  had  opposed  as  being  in- 
compatible with  the  liberty  to  which  as  Eng- 
lishmen and  loyal  servants  of  the  King  they 
were  entitled. 

In  the  cities  the  ceremonies  held  in  celebra- 
tion of  the  Repeal  were  conducted  upon  a  grand 
scale,  as  may  be  learned  from  the  appended  letter 
which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  June 
28th-July  ist,  1766,  and  which  has  been  selected 
as  being  typical  of  the  accounts  which  crossed 
the  water  of  the  thanksgivings  of  the  people  of 
the  Colonies  for  relief  from  hostile  legislation. 
"Extract  of  a  Letter  from  Boston ,  (New  England} 
dated  May  26.  On  Friday  sevennight,  to  the  in- 
expressible joy  of  all,  were  received  by  Captain 
Coffin,  the  important  news  of  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  which  was  signed  by  his  Majesty  the 
1 8th  of  March  last ;  upon  which  the  bells  in  the 
town  were  set  a  ringing,  the  ships  in  the  harbour 
display'd  their  colours,  guns  were  discharged  in 
different  parts  of  the  town,  and  in  the  evening 
were  several  bonfires.  According  to  a  previous 
vote  of  the  town  the  Selectmen  met  in  the  after- 
noon at  Faneuil-Hall,  and  appointed  Monday 
last  for  a  day  of  general  rejoicings  on  that  happy 
occasion.  The  morning  was  ushered  in  with 
musick,  ringing  of  bells,  and  the  discharge  of 

35 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

cannon,  the  ships  in  the  harbour  and  many  of 
the  houses  in  town  being  adorned  with  colours. 
— Joy  smil'd  in  every  countenance,  benevolence, 
gratitude  and  content  seemed  the  companions  of 
all.  By  the  generosity  of  some  Gentlemen  re- 
markable for  their  humanity  and  patriotism,  our 
gaol  was  freed  of  debtors. — At  one  o'clock  the 
castle  and  batteries,  and  train  of  artillery  fired  a 
royal  salute,  and  the  afternoon  was  spent  in  mirth 
and  jollity. — In  the  evening  the  whole  town  was 
beautifully  illuminated : — On  the  common  the 
sons  of  Liberty  erected  a  magnificent  pyramid,  il- 
luminated with  2 80  lamps:  The  four  upper  stories 
of  which  were  ornamented  with  the  figures  of 
their  Majesties,  and  fourteen  of  the  worthy  patriots 
who  have  distinguished  themselves  by  their  love  of 
Liberty.  The  following  lines  were  on  the  four 
sides  of  the  next  apartment,  which  referred  to  the 
emblematical  figures  on  the  lower  story,  the  whole 
supported  by  a  large  base  of  the  Doric  order  : 

"  O  thou  whom  next  to  heav'n  we  most  revere, 
Fair  Liberty  !  thou  lovely  Goddess  hear  ! 
Have  we  not  woo'd  thee,  won  thee,  held  thee  long, 
Lain  in  thy  lap  and  melted  on  thy  tongue : 
Thro'  deaths  and  dangers  rugged  paths  pursu'd, 
And  led  thee  smiling  to  this  Solitude : 
Hid  thee  within  our  hearts  most  golden  cell, 
And  brav'd  the  powers  of  earth  and  powers  of  hell. 


OPINION  OF  THE  STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

Goddess !   we  cannot  part,  thou  must  not  fly, 
Be  Slaves ;  we  dare  to  scorn  it — dare  to  die. 

"  While  clanking  chaines  and  curses  shall  salute, 
Thine  ears  remorseless  G — le,  thine  OB  — ; 
To  you  blest  Patriots !   we  our  cause  submit, 
Illustrious  Campden,  Britain's  Guardian  Pitt : 
Recede  not,  frown  not,  rather  let  us  be 
Depriv'd  of  being,  than  of  Liberty. 
Let  fraud  or  malice  blacken  all  our  crimes, 
No  disaffection  stains  these  peaceful  climes ; 
O  save  us,  shield  us  from  impending  woes, 
The  foes  of  Britain,  only  are  our  foes. 

"  Boast  foul  oppression,  boast  thy  transient  reign, 
While  honest  Freedom  struggles  with  her  chain ; 
But  know  the  sons  of  Virtue,  hardy,  brave, 
Disdain  to  lose  thro'  mean  despair  to  save; 
Arrouz'd  in  thunder,  awful  they  appear, 
With  proud  deliverance  stalking  in  their  rear ; 
While  tyrant  foes  their  pallid  fear  betray, 
Shrink  from  their  arms,  and  give  their  venge- 
ance way ; 

See  in  th'  unequal  war  Oppressors  fall, 
The  hate,  contempt,  and  endless  curse  of  all. 

"  Our  Faith  approv'd  our  Liberty  restor'd, 
Our  hearts  bend  grateful  to  our  sov' reign  Lord; 
Hail  darling  Monarch  !  by  this  act  endear'd, 

37 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Our  firm  affections  are  thy  best  reward  ; 
Shou'd  Britain's  self,  against  herself  divide, 
And  hostile  armies  frown  on  either  side ; 
Shou'd  hosts  rebellious,  shake  our   Brunswick's- 

throne, 

And  as  they  dar'd  thy  parent,  dare  the  son ; 
To  this  Asylum  stretch  thine  happy  wing, 
And  we'll  contend,  who  best  shall  love  our  King. 

"  On  the  top  of  the  pyramid  was  fixed  a  round 
box  of  fireworks,  horizontally.  About  one  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  pyramid  the  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty erected  a  stage  for  the  exhibition  of  their 
fireworks,  near  the  Work-House,  in  the  lower 
room  of  which  they  entertained  the  gentlemen 
of  the  town.  John  Hancock,  Esq;  who  gave  a 
grand  and  elegant  entertainment  to  the  genteel 
part  of  the  town,  and  treated  the  populace  with 
a  pipe  of  Madeira  wine,  erected  at  the  front  of 
his  house,  which  was  magnificently  illuminated, 
a  stage  for  the  exhibition  of  his  fireworks,  which 
was  to  answer  those  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty. 

"At  dusk  the  scene  opened  by  the  discharge  of 
twelve  rockets  from  each  stage  ;  after  which  the 
figures  on  the  pyramids  were  uncovered,  making 
a  beautiful  appearance. — To  give  a  description 
of  the  great  variety  of  fireworks  exhibited  from 
this  time  till  eleven  o'clock  would  be  endless — 
the  air  was  filled  with  rockets — the  ground  with 


OPINION    OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

bee-hives  and  serpents  —  and  two  stages  with 
wheels  of  fireworks  of  various  sorts.  Mr.  Otis 
and  some  other  gentlemen  who  lived  near  the 
Common  kept  open  house  the  whole  evening, 
which  was  very  pleasant ;  the  multitudes  of  gen- 
tlemen and  ladies,  who  were  continually  passing 
from  one  place  to  another,  added  much  to  the 
brilliancy  of  the  night :  At  eleven  o'clock,  the 
signal  being  given  by  the  discharge  of  twenty- 
one  rockets,  the  horizontal  wheel  on  the  top  of 
the  pyramid  or  obelisk  was  played  off,  ending  in 
the  discharge  of  sixteen  dozen  of  serpents  in  the 
air,  which  concluded  the  shew.  To  the  honour 
of  the  Sons  of  Liberty  we  can  with  pleasure  in- 
form the  world,  that  everything  was  conducted 
with  the  utmost  decency  and  good  order ;  not  a 
reflection  cast  on  any  character,  nor  the  least  dis- 
order during  the  whole  scene. — The  pyramid, 
which  was  designed  to  be  placed  under  the  Tree 
of  Liberty,  as  a  standing  monument  of  this  glo- 
rious sera,  by  accident  took  fire  about  one  o'clock, 
and  was  consumed  : — The  lamps  by  which  it  was 
illuminated  not  being  extinguished  at  the  close 
of  the  scene  it  is  supposed  to  have  taken  fire  by 
some  of  them. 

"  On  Tuesday  evening  some  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  apprehending  the  lanthorns  hung  on  the 
tree  of  Liberty,  which  the  night  before  amounted 
only  to  the  ever  memorable  No.  45,  would 

39 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

have  made  a  more  loyal  and  striking  appearance 
if  increased  to  the  glorious  majority  of  108,  met 
and  procuring  that  number,  disposed  them  on  the 
tree  in  a  very  agreeable  picturesque  manner.  The 
houses  next  adjoining  and  opposite  were  deco- 
rated with  figures  characteristic  of  those  to  whom 
we  bear  the  deepest  loyalty  and  gratitude  :  Here 
an  imperfect  portrait  of  their  Majesties,  our 
most  gracious  King  and  Queen — there,  the  royal 
arms  : — here  the  illustrious  Campden,  Pitt,  Con- 
way,  Barre,  and  others  of  late  so  conspicuous  in 
the  cause  of  Liberty  and  their  country :  in  short, 
imagination  must  supply  the  variety  exhibited  on 
this  occasion,  which  words  are  wanting  to  ex- 
press. 

"The  Honour  his  Majesty's  Council,  at  a  pre- 
vious invitation  of  the  Governor,  met  at  the 
province  House  on  Monday  afternoon,  where 
his  Majesty's  health,  and  many  other  loyal  toasts 
were  drank ;  and  in  the  evening  his  Excellency 
with  the  Council,  walked  in  the  Common,  to 
see  the  fireworks,  exhibitions,  &c.  who  were  well 
pleased  with  the  regularity  the  inhabitants  car- 
ried on  their  demonstrations  of  loyalty  and  joy 
on  this  happy  occasion." 

This  celebration  took  place  at  a  period  when 
numerical  symbolism  was  in  frequent  use,  hence 
the  numbers  280,  45,  108  mentioned  in  the 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP   ACT  LEGISLATION 

above  description  were  readily  recognized  as  be- 
ing emblematical  respectively,  of  the  number  of 
votes  cast  in  favour  of  the  Repeal  in  the  House 
of  Commons  (the  actual  number  was  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five,  but  erroneously  reported 
to  America  as  two  hundred  and  eighty),  of  John 
Wilkes  (see  pages  95-121),  and  of  the  majority 
by  which  the  bill  was  carried  in  the  House  of 
Commons. 

Trade  in  both  England  and  the  Colonies 
quickly  revived,  and  the  Stamp  Act,  and  the  en- 
mities caused  thereby,  bade  fair  to  be  forgotten. 
Any  American  news  of  political  import  which 
appeared  in  the  English  press  took  the  shape  of 
"Addresses  to  the  King"  from  the  various  Co- 
lonial Assemblies,  who  used  this  method  of  for- 
mally expressing  their  loyalty  to  their  Sover- 
eign, and  their  gratitude  for  the  removal  of  the 
unpopular  and  oppressive  legislation.  Undoubt- 
edly the  story  of  the  Stamp  Act  would  have 
gone  down  in  history  as  a  bit  of  unwise  and 
hasty  legislation,  which  had  been  repealed  as 
soon  as  its  significance  was  clearly  understood, 
if  the  Ministry  had  taken  to  heart  the  lessons 
taught  thereby,  and  had  not  soon  attempted 
measure  after  measure  repressive  to  self-govern- 
ment in  the  Colonies,  accounts  of  which  will 
appear  in  later  chapters  of  this  volume. 

In  the  course  of  events,  however,  its  mem- 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

ories  were  constantly  revived,  and  during  the 
tempestuous  times  in  this  country  which  pre- 
ceded the  breaking  out  of  the  American  Rev- 
olution, the  Stamp  Act  was  kept  constantly  in 
mind,  and  effigies  of  its  author,  Lord  Grenville, 
though  dead,  and  of  Lord  Bute,  its  supposed  in- 
stigator, received  the  same  treatment  accorded 
to  the  images  of  Lord  North  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  Ministry,  who  were  then  attempt- 
ing a  domination  as  obnoxious  as  that  which 
their  predecessors  had  inaugurated.  In  England 
also,  at  the  same  time,  the  principles  involved 
in  the  Stamp  Act  were  popularly  considered  to 
be  the  primary  cause  of  the  troubles  which  were 
then  threatening  the  integrity  of  the  nation. 
Additional  evidence  of  this  fact  may  be  deduced 
from  the  study  of  the  mezzotint  cartoon,  repro- 
duced upon  the  opposite  page  in  the  colours  of 
the  original.  It  was  issued  by  W.  Humphrey  y 
Gerrard  Street,  Sobo.  [London],  and  first  appeared 
upon  sale  in  the  print  shops  of  London  on  the 
1 6th  of  February,  1776,  ten  months  after  the 
battles  of  Lexington  and  Concord  had  precipi- 
tated the  war,  which  ended  in  the  separation  of 
the  Colonies  from  Great  Britain.  The  title  of 
this  print,  "  THE  WISE  MEN  of  GOTHAM 
and  their  GOOSE,"  is  sarcasm  itself,  and  its 
story  is  told  in  the  following  verses,  which  hang 
upon  the  wall  of  the  Council  Chamber  upon 

4-* 


>rf.!fj',-iii(f 
a-*\Saa/iu.€tivt 
' 


uitJi  fop  Ifty  tt>  quilts 

was  letfi  'far  ,m 
UTivA  nffa&O/f  jwrtlj  f/irir 
Silt  a/i'i-f  all  l/iaf  f/if*yyfr/!i-<t 
Was  ,i  fi>u  6o-        -  ' 


Tt  matr  tfsJ£imi/f(r  ffmf  far'  Uro  . 
'17ii>  C'lsnsiv /iitrjHvf  fr  c/'faiit 

if  JirrjVitA  ttty/iafa  f/i,iat , 
hut  m.-1-e  Mrfef/y  /<•  «,„/,&,,/- 
f>-  St«mpt  iifum  Sw  Wf»?rs  Hffff, 
lit  this  ImJ  nt  E/f,rf  at  'of/ . 
ff  nadf  Jut-  stni<7<r/f:/-yaH»;sqii.>/(, 
l/iit  J?  »daf  ,'nry  (r/vw  matt  A 
Tfaf/Kii//i,rj£iterfi-  if, 
^l'^Ml  .vis  f/ nwrr  dirf>n, 
/',/< 
T/uj-  </iJ.  /> 


Wfa  laid  eaehj)a\-  an  £<rri  " 
Tttr  m**/f  t/tan  0rv»- 
Omr  l/um   an 

faff  M>*as  f,'  atari-  man- 


WISE    MEIV  of  GOTHAM 


GOOSED 


OPINION   OF  THE  STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

each  side  of  the  portrait  of  the  British  Lion, 
whose  attitude  indicates  a  sense  of  shame  and 
sorrow : 

In  Gotham  once  the  Story  goes 

A  lot  of  Wise-acres  arose 

Skill'd  in  the  Great  Politic  Wheel 

Could  pound  a  Magpie,  drown  an  Eel, 

With  many  Things  of  worthy  Note 

At  present  much  too  long  to  quote, 

Their  District  was  both  far  and  wide 

Which  not  a  little  swelled  their  Pride 

But  above  all  that  they  possess' d 

Was  a  Jine  Goose,  by  all  confessed 

A  Kara  Avis  to  behold 

Who  laid  each  Day  an  Egg  of  Gold 

This  made  them  grow  immensely  rich 

Gave  them  an  Avaritious  Itch, 

The  Case  belongs  to  many  more 

They  not  contented  with  their  Store 

Would  Methods  vague  and  strange  pursue 

To  make  the  Harmless  Bird  lay  Two 

This  glorious  purpose  to  obtain 

About  her  Neck  they  put  a  chain, 

And  more  their  Folly  to  compleat 

They  Stampt  upon  her  Wings  &  Feet 

But  this  had  no  Effect  at  all, 

Tet  made  her  struggle,  flutter,  squall, 

And  do  what  every  Goose  would  do 

45 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

That  had  her  Liberty  in  view, 
When  one  of  more  distinguished  Note 

Cry'd  D n  her,  let  us  cut  her  Throat. 

They  did,  but  not  an  Egg  was  found 
But  Blood  came  pouring  from  ye  Wound. 

The  artist  has  pictured  a  meeting  of  King 
George  and  his  Cabinet  and  has  grouped  them 
around  an  executioner's  block  upon  which  lies  a 
splendid  goose.  Her  numerous  eggs  of  gold  are 
symbolical  of  the  wealth  of  America,  which  had 
been  flowing  into  the  coffers  of  Great  Britain 
through  the  channels  of  trade,  and  are  evidenced 
in  the  huge  basket,  which  Lord  North,  the  Prime 
Minister,  holds  aloft,  as  well  as  in  the  overflow- 
ing sack  marked  TAXES,  lying  on  the  floor.  The 
source  of  this  wealth,  whose  neck  already  wears 
a  chain,  is  about  to  have  her  usefulness  ended  by 
a  blow  of  the  cutlass  brandished  by  Lord  Bute,  to 
whose  secret  influence  the  baleful  policy  against 
America  was  attributed. 

By  a  comparison  with  other  caricatures  and 
cartoons  of  the  day  the  personage  to  the  left  of 
the  executioner  is  plainly  identified  as  the  Earl 
of  Sandwich,  the  "  Jemmy  Twitcher  "  of  the 
opponents  of  the  King's  policy,  and  whose  bit- 
ter and  hypocritical  attack  upon  Wilkes  in  the 
House  of  Lords  twelve  years  before  had  brought 
down  upon  him  the  ire  and  contempt  of  both 

46 


OPINION   OF  THE   STAMP  ACT   LEGISLATION 

England  and  America.  The  two  personages  in 
the  centre  of  the  group,  who  are  interestedly 
overseeing  the  execution,  were  easily  recogniz- 
able as  King  George  the  Third,  and  his  Solic- 
itor-General, Alexander  Wedderburn,  whose 
effigy  figured  in  many  a  Colonial  demonstration 
on  account  of  the  brutal  and  uncalled  for  insult 
heaped  upon  Franklin  in  the  presence  of  the 
Privy  Council  two  years  before.  In  the  fore- 
ground of  the  scene,  the  lawn  sleeves  and  robe 
denote  the  wearer  to  be  one  of  the  Bishops, 
then  sitting  in  the  House  of  Lords,  whose  votes 
at  this  period  were  severely  commented  on  by 
the  press,  as  being  in  no  way  worthy  of  men 
whose  profession  proclaimed  them  lovers  of  jus- 
tice and  peace  (see  page  147).  The  heavy  wig 
and  the  slender  nose  of  the  Minister  standing  be- 
tween his  Majesty  and  the  Bishop  identify  their 
owner  as  Lord  Mansfield,  the  Lord  Chancellor 
of  England,  a  man  who  during  his  long  service 
in  public  life  neglected  no  opportunity  to  further 
any  measures  which  might  tend  to  restrict  the 
rights  of  the  King's  subjects  in  America. 

In  this  cartoon,  put  upon  the  market  by 
an  English  print-seller  for  sale  to  an  appreciative 
English  public,  may  be  read  a  story  of  a  power- 
loving  King  and  his  foolish  advisers,  and  of  their 
jealousy  of  the  increasing  wealth  of  their  Amer- 
ican subjects,  though  cognizant  of  the  fact  that 

47 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  commercial  activities  of  the  latter  were  add- 
ing great  prosperity  to  the  people  of  England. 
It  also  tells  of  the  recognition  of  the  attempts 
of  the  Ministry  to  take  to  itself  additional  reve- 
nue through  the  imposition  of  import  duties  and 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  of  the  righteous  protest  of 
the  Colonies  against  the  same,  and  of  the  final 
outcome, — the  shedding  of  the  BLOOD  of  a  peo- 
ple who  were  only  attempting  to  defend  the  lib- 
erty which  they  were  entitled  to  possess. 


II 

ENGLISH    DISAPPROVAL  OF   THE 

COLONIAL    POLICY    OF 

PARLIAMENT 


II 

ENGLISH    DISAPPROVAL    OF    THE    COLONIAL 
POLICY    OF     PARLIAMENT 

HE  preamble  to  the  Bill  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  as- 
signed as  the  reason  therefor 
that  "the  Continuance  of  the 
said  Act  would  be  attended  with 
many  Inconveniences  and  may 
be  productive  of  Consequences  greatly  detri- 
mental to  the  Commercial  Interests  of  these 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Kingdoms."  At  the  same  time,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  supremacy  claimed  by  Parliament 
over  the  Colonies,  an  Act  was  passed  which 
denied  the  claims  made  by  Colonial  Assemblies 
of  exemption  from  the  taxation  imposed  by  Par- 
liament, and  declared  that  "  the  Parliament  had, 
and  of  right  ought  to  have  power  to  bind  the 
Colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  This  asser- 
tion of  the  right  of  Parliament  to  control  the 
Colonies  caused  little  comment  among  the  peo- 
ple of  England:  in  America  it  was  quietly  ac- 
cepted as  being  merely  a  balm  to  the  wounded 
feelings  of  the  King  and  his  party  in  Parliament. 
Along  with  the  feeling  of  relief  from  the  well- 
nigh  intolerable  taxation,  however,  grew  the  un- 
derstanding that  much  of  Great  Britain's  pros- 
perity depended  upon,  and  sprang  from  America, 
and  that  in  future  the  rights  of  the  Colonies 
necessarily  must  receive  more  considerate  treat- 
ment from  the  law-makers  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water. 

A  few  months  later  the  serious  illness  of 
Lord  Chatham  necessitated  his  temporary  re- 
tirement ;  in  his  absence  Charles  Townsend,  the 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  at  the  behest  of 
George  Grenville,  and  to  the  delight  of  the  King, 
introduced  into  Parliament  early  in  1767  an  Act 
imposing  duties  on  lead,  glass,  painter's  colours, 
paper  and  tea  imported  into  the  Colonies. 

5* 


DISAPPROVAL   OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

The  ostensible  purpose  of  this  Bill  was  to 
raise  from  America  the  small  sum  of  twenty 
thousand  pounds  sterling  for  the  Exchequer ;  its 
real  purpose  was  to  reassert  the  domination  of 
Parliament  over  the  growing  American  Colonies. 
This  Bill  awakened  but  little  general  interest  in 
Parliament,  as  its  sponsors  called  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  American  Colonial  Assemblies 
had  virtually  admitted  the  right  of  Great  Britain 
to  restrain  the  commerce  of  the  Colonies  by 
the  imposition  of  duties  upon  importations.  In 
America  the  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Bill 
caused  great  indignation.  At  first  no  organized 
attempt  was  made  to  resist  its  provisions,  al- 
though its  enactment  was  exceedingly  irritating 
to  the  people  and  caused  them  to  be  jealous  and 
suspicious  of  any  fancied  attack  upon  their  pre- 
rogatives. 

An  expression  of  the  prevailing  distrust  of 
the  motives  of  Parliament,  then  extant  in  Amer- 
ica, manifested  itself  in  the  Assembly  of  the  Col- 
ony of  New  York.  Parliament  had  recently 
passed  an  Act  which  compelled  the  various  Col- 
onies to  provide  for  the  billeting  of  the  royal 
troops  stationed  among  them.  With  this  Act  the 
Assembly  of  New  York  complied  in  every  par- 
ticular, except  the  supplying  of  pepper,  salt  and 
vinegar.  For  this  insubordination,  trifling  as  it 
appeared,  its  legislative  powers  were  suspended. 

53 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1767,  under 
date  of  November  3Oth-December  2nd,  there 
appeared  in  the  Pennsylvania  Chronicle  and  Uni- 
versal Advertiser  the  first  of  twelve  successive 
weekly  letters  from  a  "Farmer  in  Pennsylvania 
to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  British  Colonies."  In 
these  were  skillfully  and  exhaustively  discussed 
the  possibilities  which  might  result  from  the 
attitude  then  being  assumed  by  Great  Britain 
toward  her  Colonies.  These  "Letters"  instantly 
struck  a  responsive  note,  and  were  reprinted  in 
almost  all  of  the  Colonial  newspapers  and  pub- 
lished in  book  form  in  Philadelphia,  New  York, 
Boston  and  Williamsburg.  Their  contents  called 
attention  to  the  seeming  indifference  with  which 
the  news  of  the  suspension  of  the  legislative 
powers  of  the  Assembly  of  New  York  was  re- 
ceived in  the  various  Colonies,  and  argued  that 
this  action  was  indirectly  a  positive  assertion  of 
the  power  of  Parliament  to  tax  the  Colonies, 
and,  in  a  measure,  virtually  similar  to  the  method 
of  taxation  sought  to  be  established  by  the  Stamp 
Act.  The  levying  of  the  new  duties  was  next 
discussed,  and  a  sharply  defined  distinction  drawn 
between  the  right  of  Parliament  to  impose  duties 
for  the  purpose  of  directing  the  trade  of  the 
Colonies  into  English  channels,  and  the  right  of 
the  same  body  to  levy  duties  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  revenue  therefrom. 

54 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

Lack  of  space  prevents  further  exposition  of 
the  contents  of  these  "Letters"  beyond  stating 
that  they  drew  attention  to  other  dangers  lurk- 
ing in  the  situation,  and  called  upon  the  Col- 
onies for  a  solid  and  united  resistance  to  the 
attacks  upon  their  liberties.  The  "Farmer's 
Letters"  were  also  published  in  book  form  in 
London  and  Dublin,  and  being  favourably  re- 
viewed in  the  press  and  periodicals,  had  large 
circulation,  and  their  contents  formed  an  inter- 
esting topic  of  conversation  among  all  classes. 
The  name  of  John  Dickinson,  for  it  soon  was 
known  that  he  was  the  "illustrious  author," 
became  famous  in  England.  In  the  House  of 
Commons  Isaac  Barre  characterized  him  as  "a 
man  who  was  not  only  an  ornament  to  his  coun- 
try but  an  honour  to  human  nature." 

The  arguments  advanced  in  the  "  Farmer's 
Letters  "  were  freely  quoted  in  speeches  in  Par- 
liament, and  their  substance  appeared  in  many 
discussions  of  the  American  question  found  in 
the  press.  From  this  time  on,  the  principles  of 
constitutional  freedom  advocated  by  the  Amer- 
ican Assemblies  became  more  thoroughly  under- 
stood in  England.  The  tone  of  the  press  there 
changed  ;  the  material  advantage  or  disadvantage 
to  Great  Britain  of  the  policy  of  taxing  her  Col- 
onies was  but  little  dwelt  upon.  The  questions 
at  issue  in  this  connection,  as  discussed  in  the 

55 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

press,  were  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  Col- 
onies to  regulate  their  own  affairs. 

America  soon  became  aroused  to  the  threat- 
ened danger,  and  Protests,  Petitions  and  Ad- 
dresses to  the  King  praying  for  the  abolition  of 
the  recent  duties  were  voted  by  Assemblies  and 
town  meetings.  The  insignificance  of  the  sum 
purposed  to  be  raised  by  the  new  revenue  meas- 
ures gave  ground  to  a  general  suspicion  that  this 
legislation  would  be  followed  by  a  more  univer- 
sal system  of  taxation.  In  many  parts  of  the 
country  the  old  Non-Importation  Associations 
were  revived,  and  the  feeling  of  hostility  to  Great 
Britain,  which  had  disappeared,  sprang  up  anew. 
The  collection  of  the  duties  aroused  antagonism 
and  the  Custom  House  officers  were  subject  to 
frequent  outrages  at  the  hands  of  the  lawless  ele- 
ment; an  ominous  undercurrent  of  resentment 
against  his  Majesty's  servants  was  sweeping 
through  the  country. 

The  Assembly  of  Massachusetts-Bay  on  Jan- 
uary i /th,  1768,  voted  to  send  to  their  agent  in 
London,  Dennis  de  Berdt,  a  carefully  prepared 
letter  couched  in  terms  of  the  greatest  loyalty  to 
Great  Britain,  but  affirming  strongly  its  consti- 
tutional power  to  legislate  for  the  Colony  and 
pointing  out  the  manifest  unfairness  of  the  prop- 
osition of  taxing  Colonies  where  manufactures 
were  prohibited,  and  the  trade  of  which  was  con- 

56 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

fined  to  the  nation  imposing  the  taxation.  Other 
clauses  in  the  letter  contained  strong  objections 
to  the  proviso  in  the  new  Act  that  the  revenues 
derived  therefrom  be  used  for  the  payment  of 
the  salaries  of  the  Royal  Governors  and  Justices, 
which  payments  had  hitherto  been  made  by  the 
legislative  bodies  of  the  Colonies  ;  objection  was 
also  made  to  the  maintenance  of  a  standing  army 
in  America  and  alarm  was  expressed  at  the  Act 
suspending  the  legislative  powers  of  the  Assem- 
bly of  New  York.  Massachusetts-Bay  at  the 
same  time  instructed  its  Agent  to  see  that  the 
contents  of  the  letter  reached  the  individual 
members  of  the  Ministry,  and  also  be  given  wide 
circulation  in  England  through  the  medium  of 
the  press :  along  with  the  letter  was  sent  a  Peti- 
tion to  the  King  which  complained  of  Parlia- 
ment's action  against  America.  One  month 
later  the  same  body  issued  Letters  to  the  Assem- 
blies of  their  sister  Colonies  and  the  House  of 
Burgesses  ofYirginia.  These  letters  enclosed  copies 
of  the  above  mentioned  Letter  to  their  Agent 
and  Petition  to  the  King,  and  recounted  the  vari- 
ous other  steps  Massachusetts-Bay  had  taken  to  se- 
cure, through  the  instrumentality  of  their  friends 
in  England,  the  repeal  of  the  new  legislation  and 
expressed  the  belief  that  the  united  supplications 
of  the  distressed  Americans  would  be  favourably 
received  by  his  Majesty,  King  George,  and  also 

57 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

suggested,  though  disclaiming  any  desire  to  take 
the  lead,  that  a  correspondence  be  opened  between 
the  various  Colonies  upon  the  all  absorbing  and 
vital  question  of  the  new  taxation. 

In  America  these  Letters  met  a  hearty  re- 
sponse from  their  recipients,  but  the  copy  which 
reached  the  Ministry  gave  great  offense.  The 
Secretary  of  State  to  the  Colonies,  the  Earl  of 
Hillsborough,  immediately  sent  copies  of  it  to 
each  Royal  Governor,  with  instructions  to  pre- 
vent any  concurrent  action  as  suggested  therein, 
and  characterized  the  contents  of  the  letter  as 
"seditious." 

The  Ministry  then  ordered  the  Massachu- 
setts Assembly  to  rescind  their  "  Circular  Let- 
ter'* under  penalty  of  dissolution.  This  demand 
was  firmly  refused  by  a  decisive  majority,  the 
vote,  which  stood  ninety-two  to  seventeen,  being 
greeted  with  acclamations  of  joy  throughout  all 
the  Colonies.  "  92  "  at  once  became  another 
American  symbol  and  the  patriotic  members  of 
the  Assembly  were  immortalized  in  song  and 
verse;  fetes  were  given  in  their  honour  through- 
out the  country  and  few  public  functions  closed 
without  the  toasting  of  "  the  glorious  ninety- 
two." 

The  press  of  England  almost  unanimously 
denounced  this  procedure  of  the  Ministry  in  no 
uncertain  terms  and  declared  that  no  fair  minded 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

person  could  deny  the  folly  and  injustice  of  a 
demand  which  required  "  a  public  body  to  re- 
scind a  resolution  for  sending  a  letter  which  was 
already  sent,  answered,  and  acted  upon."  The  ad- 
ministration's designation  of  the  vote  for  sending 
a  "  Circular  Letter  "  to  invite  the  Assemblies  of 
the  neighbouring  colonies  to  communicate  to- 
gether in  behalf  of  the  public  safety  in  order  to 
obtain  a  redress  of  grievances,  as  "a  flagitious 
attempt  to  disturb  the  public  peace"  was  con- 
sidered to  involve  the  liberty  of  legislative  action 
in  England  itself  as  well  as  in  America. 

The  tension  between  Governor  Bernard  and 
the  Assembly  was  at  the  breaking  point  in  the 
Province  of  Massachusetts-Bay.  The  Executive 
was  known  to  be  inciting  the  home  government 
to  further  action  against  his  people.  The  en- 
forcement of  the  customs  laws  became  more  and 
more  difficult  and  his  Majesty's  servants  in  the 
Customs  service  held  no  enviable  position.  In 
order  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  law,  main- 
tain order,  and  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown, 
the  Governor  applied  for  an  armed  garrison  for 
Boston  and  his  request  was  granted.  When  it 
was  learned  that  troops  would  be  sent  to  Boston, 
the  people  there  appointed  a  committee  to  wait 
upon  the  Governor  with  a  request  that  the  As- 
sembly be  convened.  This  being  denied,  a  town 
meeting  was  called  which  empowered  the  Se- 

59 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

lectmen  to  propose  to  the  Selectmen  of  the  other 
towns  of  the  Province  a  convention  to  be  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall  in  Boston  on  the  22nd  of  Septem- 
ber, 1768. 

Representatives  of  ninety-six  towns  and  eight 
districts  responded  and  elected  the  Speaker  and 
Clerk  of  the  late  Assembly  to  corresponding  po- 
sitions in  this  newly  organized  representative  body. 
The  convention  remained  in  session  for  six  days, 
drew  up  a  set  of  resolutions  which  voiced  their 
protest  against  the  danger  to  "  the  liberties  of  the 
Colonies  from  the  united  body  of  pensioners  and 
soldiers,"  repeated  also  the  protest  of  the  As- 
sembly of  Massachusetts-Bay,  and,  after  strongly 
counselling  moderation  and  patience  until  their 
just  demands  were  granted,  dispersed.  This  act  of 
the  people  of  Boston,  in  calling  a  convention  com- 
posed of  duly  authorized  delegates  from  all  the 
towns  of  their  colony,  demonstrated  to  America 
that  legislative  government  could  still  be  insti- 
tuted, even  though  the  representative  of  the  Crown 
should  fail  to  call  together  the  regular  legislative 
body  of  the  people.  Massachusetts- Bay  thus  or- 
ganized a  Province  in  defiance  of  the  royal  Gov- 
ernment and  paved  the  way  for  the  action  of 
Virginia  six  years  later,  when  the  latter  called  to- 
gether a  similar  representative  body  elected  by 
duly  authorized  conventions  of  the  twelve  Col- 
onies, for  the  express  purpose  of  devising  measures 

60 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL  POLICY 

of  relief  in  behalf  of  the  distressed  people  of  Bos- 
ton and  Massachusetts-Bay. 

Two  regiments  arrived  at  Boston  the  day  after 
the  convention  adjourned,  and  immediately  be- 
came a  cause  of  irritation  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  city,  one  being  encamped  upon  the  Common, 
the  other  quartered  in  Faneuil  Hall,  the  meeting- 
place  of  the  people — a  view  of  which  appears  in 
the  initial  letter  at  the  opening  of  this  chapter. 

The  maintenance  of  an  armed  force  in  Bos- 
ton enraged  the  people  of  the  other  Colonies  for 
they  feared  that  their  own  capitals  might  later 
on  be  similarly  garrisoned. 

In  the  meantime  the  trade  centres  of  Eng- 
land were  feeling  the  loss  of  their  American  trade, 
as  the  example  of  non-importation  set  by  the 
merchants  of  Boston,  had  been  followed  in  many 
other  places.  Their  quaintly  worded  resolutions 
and  odd  penalties  imposed  for  the  infraction 
thereof,  which  appeared  in  the  English  press,  did 
much  to  convince  the  thinking  people  of  Eng- 
land of  the  earnest  determination  of  the  Amer- 
icans to  uphold  their  right  of  self-government. 
The  following  article  which  appeared  in  the 
London  Chronicle  of  May  3ist— June  2nd,  1768 
concisely  reflected  the  serious  views  held  in  many 
parts  of  the  Colonies : — "  Boston,  April  n.  The 
Connecticut  papers  acquaint  us  that  their  great 
towns  have  come  into  similar  measures  with 

61 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

Boston.  The  Mansfield  agreement  concludes 
thus:  'And  if  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  this 
town  does  not  conform  to  the  said  resolutions, 
or  violates  the  said  agreement  without  offering 
superior  arguments  to  vindicate  their  conduct, 
they  shall  be  looked  upon  as  having  their 
reasoning  faculty  beclouded  and  treated  with 
that  tenderness  that  such  a  melancholy  circum- 
stance requires.'  ' 

In  1769  the  people  of  Boston,  following  out 
a  suggestion  made  by  their  friends  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, took  a  still  more  decisive  step  and  returned 
goods  imported  from  England,  and  thereby  em- 
phasized their  determination  to  use  no  British 
goods  until  the  obnoxious  legislation  was  repealed. 
In  the  same  year  Parliament  sent  an  Address  to  the 
King,  in  which  it  gave  assurance  of  its  support  to 
any  measures  necessary  to  maintain  order  in  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay, and  also  besought  him  to  direct 
the  Governor  of  that  Colony  to  transmit  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  persons  there  suspected  of 
treasonable  practices,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
brought  to  England  for  trial.  This  step  attacked 
the  cherished  right  of  trial  by  jury. 

Nothing  can  be  selected  which  more  strongly 
instances  the  sympathy  displayed  in  the  London 
press  for  the  people  of  Massachusetts-Bay  than 
the  following  four  lines  which  headed  a  page  of 
the  London  Chronicle  on  May  23d,  1769.  The 

6z 


DISAPPROVAL    OF    THE     COLONIAL    POLICY 

sentiment*  was  the  more  noteworthy  from  the 
fact  that  this  paper  was  almost  alone  in  its  edi- 
torial attacks  upon  John  Wilkes,  whose  struggle 
with  the  King  and  Parliament  was  the  all-absorb- 
ing topic  at  this  time. 

THE  fign,  by  which  to  know,  that  Government 
repents  of  its  feverities  againft  the  North 
Americans,   would  be,  the  recall   of   a    certain 
Governour. 

The  press  continually  drew  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  dangers,  which  had  happily  been 
avoided  by  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  had 
been  revived  by  the  new  American  legislation. 
Of  the  numerous  warnings  of  the  peril  which 
threatened  the  integrity  of  the  nation,  none  was 
more  pointed  than  the  one  which  was  frequently 
to  be  found  heading  the  columns  of  the  London 
Chronicle  during  the  year  1769,  and  called  at- 
tention to  the  truism,  that  by  disagreement  which 
causes  passion,  the  greatest  of  the  great  will  be 
destroyed. 

ENGLISHMEN,    SCOTTISHMEN,    IRISHMEN, 
COLONISTS,    BRETHEREN, 

Difcordia  res  maximae  dilabuntur ! 

The  impression  steadily  gained  ground  even 
in  Parliament  that  the  persecution  of  the  Colo- 

*  In  order  to  demonstrate  the  full  force  of  the  editorials  quoted  on  pages 
26,  28,  63,  the  statement  must  be  made  that  during  the  previous  four 
years  almost  the  only  leading  articles  presented  in  this  form  in  the  London 
Chronicle  were  those  herein  embodied. 

63 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

nies  had  gone  too  far  and  had  awakened  a  sym- 
pathy for  America  in  England,  which  was  too 
universal  to  be  disregarded,  hence  partial  relief 
from  taxation  was  promised.  The  tone  of  the 
English  press  was  most  sarcastic  and  bitter 
against  the  Ministry.  The  following  fables  ad- 
dressed to  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough,  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  American  Department,  appeared 
on  January  2nd,  1770,  in  the  newspaper  above 
quoted;  these  in  unmistakable  terms  referred  to 
the  foolish  policy  of  taxation  inaugurated  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  revenue  from  America,  which 
had  resulted  in  the  encouragement  of  manufac- 
turing there  and  loss  of  trade  to  England  (further 
references  to  this  fact  are  found  in  the  closing 
chapter  of  this  volume) ;  they  also  briefly  fore- 
told the  impending  repeal  of  this  foolish  act  of 
legislation  and  contained  the  warning  that  the 
constantly  growing  American  Colonies  would  in 
time  no  longer  brook  the  unjust  interference  to 
which  in  their  weaker  days  they  had  been  com- 
pelled to  submit. 

"  New  Fables,  humbly  inscribed  to  the  S y 

of  St e  for  the  American  Department. 

FABLE  I. 

"A  Herd  of  cows  had  long  afforded  plenty  of 
milk,  butter,  and  cheese  to  an  avaricious  Farmer, 
who  grudged  them  the  grass  they  subsisted  on, 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE  COLONIAL  POLICY 

and  at  length  mowed  it  to  make  money  of  the 
hay,  leaving  them  to  shift  for  food  as  they  could, 
and  yet  still  expected  to  milk  them  as  before ; 
but  the  cows,  offended  with  his  unreasonable- 
ness, resolved  for  the  future  to  suckle  one  an- 
other. 

FABLE  II 

"An  eagle,  king  of  birds,  soaring  on  his  wings 
aloft  over  a  Farmer's  yard,  saw  a  cat  there  bask- 
ing in  the  sun,  mistook  it  for  a  rabbit,  stooped, 
seized  it,  and  carried  it  up  into  the  air,  intend- 
ing to  prey  on  it.  The  cat  turning,  set  her 
claws  into  the  eagle's  breast ;  who,  finding  his 
mistake,  opened  his  talons  and  would  have  let 
her  drop ;  but  puss  unwilling  to  fall  so  far,  held 
faster ;  and  the  eagle,  to  get  rid  of  the  incon- 
venience, found  it  necessary  to  set  her  down 
where  he  took  her  up. 

FABLE  III 

"A  lion's  whelp  was  put  on  board  a  Guinea 
ship  bound  to  America  as  a  present  to  a  friend 
in  that  country  :  it  was  tame  and  harmless  as  a 
kitten,  and  therefore  not  confined,  but  suffered 
to  walk  about  the  ship  at  pleasure.  A  stately, 
full-grown  English  mastiff,  belonging  to  the 
Captain,  despising  the  weakness  of  the  young 
lion,  frequently  took  its  food  by  force,  and  often 
turned  it  out  of  its  lodging-box,  when  he  had  a 

65 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

mind  to  repose  therein  himself.  The  young 
lion  nevertheless  grew  daily  in  size  and  strength, 
and  the  voyage  being  long,  he  became  at  last  a 
more  equal  match  for  the  mastiff,  who  contin- 
uing his  insults,  received  a  stunning  blow  from 
the  lion's  paw  that  fetched  his  skin  over  his 
ears,  and  deterred  him  from  any  future  con- 
test with  such  growing  strength ;  regretting 
that  he  had  not  rather  secured  its  friendship  than 
provoked  its  enmity." 

American  affairs  claimed  increasing  promi- 
nence in  the  British  press,  and  the  opinions  there- 
in expressed  voiced  the  wide-spread  demand  that 
the  Colonists  receive  redress  for  their  grievan- 
ces. The  following  card,  which  appeared  in 
the  London  Chronicle  under  date  of  February 
3rd-6th,  1 770,  in  a  very  few  lines  summed  up  the 
views  previously  advocated  by  various  writers  in 
many  lengthy  epistles,  and  offered  a  solution 
which,  if  it  had  been  accepted  by  the  Ministry, 
would  have  reunited  the  bonds  of  loyalty  and  love 
which  hitherto  had  held  the  Colonies  true  to 
Great  Britain,  and  reopened  the  channels  of  trade 
which  had  been  clogged  by  evil  legislation. 

A  CARD 

"RATIONALIS  presents  his  compliments 
to  the  Ministry  and  Merchants  connected  with 
America,  and  begs  leave  to  acquaint  them,  that, 
in  his  opinion,  the  remedy  to  heal  the  difference 

66 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

between  this  Kingdom  and  the  Colonies,  can  be 
contained  in  a  nutshell :  It  is, 

Repeal  your  impolitic  Revenue  Acts ; 

Recall  your  army  from  America ; 

Revoke  the  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Cus- 
toms; 

Abolish  the  Vice  Courts  of  Admiralty  ; 

And  ask  such  aids  as  you  may  want  through 
their  Assemblies. 

Do  this,  and  all  will  instantly  be  at  peace; 
the  Colonies  will  embrace  you ;  they  will  aban- 
don their  manufactures,  and  as  heretofore  bring 
you  the  fruits  of  their  labour  for  your  goods." 

The  next  step  taken  by  the  Ministry  was  a 
weak  one,  for  by  repealing,  "at  the  request  of  the 
merchants  and  people  of  Great  Britain,"  all  duties 
save  that  on  tea,  it  neither  affirmed  its  power  of 
enforcing  taxation  nor  renounced  its  right  to 
impose  duties  upon  the  Colonies.  The  reten- 
tion of  the  tax  upon  tea  in  no  way  reflected  the 
wish  of  the  people  of  England,  and  was  only 
secured  by  the  strenuous  efforts  of  the  King's 
henchmen  in  Parliament,  as  the  bill  for  its  re- 
peal failed  by  only  sixty-two  votes  at  a  full  meet- 
ing of  the  House  of  Commons,  a  body  largely 
composed  of  men  who  owed  their  livelihood  to 
their  willingness  to  act  at  their  King's  pleasure. 
The  abolition  of  four-fifths  of  the  duties,  how- 
ever, had  the  effect  which  its  author,  Lord  North, 

67 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

had  predicted,  namely,  that  of  the  dismember- 
ment of  the  Non-Importation  Associations  and 
the  renewal  of  commerce  with  Great  Britain. 

There  had  been  great  difficulty  in  America  in 
maintaining  the  agreements  against  trading  with 
England,  for  there  was  no  such  unanimity  of  hos- 
tile sentiment  against  the  Acts  of  '67  as  had  been 
manifested  at  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Tax.  The 
southern  Colonies  as  a  rule  suffered  little  dimi- 
nution of  trade,  but  in  New  York  so  strictly  was 
the  agreement  observed  that  the  London  press 
had  noted  that  even  "the  statues  of  his  Majesty 
and  Lord  Chatham,  executed  by  Mr.  Wilton,  by 
order  of  the  General  Assembly  of  New  York,  will 
not  be  shipped  for  that  Province  till  the  fate  of 
the  American  Revenue  Acts  is  known."  To  all 
appearances  the  era  of  contention  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  Colonies  was  closed  and  the  old 
relations  renewed  except  in  Massachusetts-Bay, 
where  the  presence  of  the  soldiery  was  a  con- 
stant source  of  irritation.  In  this  Province  the 
next  three  years  were  marked  by  a  steady  increase 
of  the  ill-feeling  between  the  King's  servants 
and  the  populace.  The  affair  which  took  place 
on  the  5th  of  March,  1770,  in  Boston  between 
the  royal  troops  and  the  citizens,  popularly 
known  as  the  "  Boston  Massacre,"  was  kept  con- 
stantly in  mind  and  its  anniversary  celebrated 

each  year  by  the  delivering  of  an  oration  by 
i 

68 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

some  distinguished  patriot  who  took  this  occa- 
sion to  add  fuel  to  the  flame  of  Liberty  by  dis- 
coursing on  the  wrongs  of  the  Colonies,  the 
menace  of  standing  armies,  and  similar  topics 
calculated  to  keep  the  public  mind  aroused 
against  the  royal  Government.  The  festivities 
in  honour  of  the  "  I4th  of  August,  1765,'*  on 
which  day  Boston  first  showed  her  opposition  to 
the  Stamp  Tax,  were  enthusiastically  entered 
into,  and  the  frequent  collisions  between  mem- 
bers of  the  Military  and  Customs  Service,  and 
the  lawless  element  of  the  town  increased  the 
tension.  The  contest  between  the  Governor  and 
the  Assembly  over  their  Prerogatives  was  freely 
recorded  in  the  English  press  and  kept  the  name 
of  Boston  and  the  distresses  of  its  people  prom- 
inent in  the  public  eye,  and  elicited  as  well,  in 
the  shape  of  "Letters  to  the  Editors,"  many 
expressions  of  sympathy  for  their  transatlantic 
brethren. 

The  repeal  of  the  duties  imposed  by  the 
"Acts  of '67,"  save  that  on  tea,  was  considered  a 
concession  to  both  parties  to  the  controversy,  for 
Parliament,  in  retaining  the  duty,  affirmed  its 
right  of  taxation.  America,  by  refraining  from 
the  use  of  tea  imported  from  England,  denied 
that  right,  and  drank  tea  smuggled  in  from  other 
countries.  In  the  year  1773  the  controversy 
between  the  King  and  his  subjects  in  America 

69 


THE  BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

took  a  new  turn,  owing  to  the  direct  refusal  of  all 
the  Colonies  to  receive  tea  from  England. 

At  this  time  the  great  East  India  Company, 
high  in  favour  with  the  Crown,  was  in  financial 
straits,  for  in  its  warehouses  in  England  some 
seventeen  million  pounds  of  tea  had  been  ac- 
cumulated for  which  there  was  apparently  no 
market.  In  order,  therefore,  to  relieve  this  Com- 
pany from  its  financial  embarrassment,  and  at 
the  same  time  secure  a  revenue  from  America, 
Parliament  passed  a  Bill  remitting  the  duty  of 
a  shilling  a  pound  hitherto  paid  upon  all  tea  on 
its  arrival  at  an  English  port,  provided  it  be  ex- 
ported to  America,  thereby  enabling  that  country, 
after  paying  the  duty  of  three-pence  per  pound, 
to  secure  its  tea  at  a  lower  cost  than  before 
the  duty  had  been  imposed.  The  news  of  this 
innovation,  which  was  regarded  as  an  attempt 
to  seduce  the  Colonies  into  the  payment  of  the 
revenue  tax,  caused  widespread  indignation  and 
alarm,  and  plans  were  formulated  to  render  it 
ineffectual.  Word  soon  came  that  ships  were 
lading  with  tea  for  Charleston,  Philadelphia, 
New  York  and  Boston.  The  citizens  of  Phila- 
delphia were  quick  to  act,  and  on  the  i8th  of 
October  passed  the  following  resolutions,  which 
were  so  comprehensive  that  they  were  shortly 
afterwards  adopted  by  the  citizens  of  the  prin- 
cipal towns  of  the  various  Colonies,  and  given 

70 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

to  the  world  as  America's  reply  to  this  new 
move  of  Parliament : 

"I.  That  the  disposal  of  their  own  property 
is  the  inherent  right  of  freemen  ;  that  there  can 
be  no  property  in  that  which  another  can,  of 
right,  take  from  us  without  our  consent ;  that 
the  claim  of  parliament  to  tax  America,  is  in 
other  words,  a  claim  of  right  to  levy  contribu- 
tions on  us  at  pleasure. 

"2.  That  the  duty  imposed  by  parliament 
upon  tea  landed  in  America,  is  a  tax  on  the 
Americans,  or  levying  contributions  on  them 
without  their  consent. 

"3.  That  the  express  purpose  for  which  the 
tax  is  levied  on  the  Americans, — namely,  for  the 
support  of  government,  administration  of  justice, 
and  defence  of  his  Majesty's  dominions  in  Am- 
erica, has  a  direct  tendency  to  render  assemblies 
useless,  and  to  introduce  arbitrary  government 
and  slavery. 

"4.  That  a  virtuous  and  steady  opposition  to 
this  ministerial  plan  of  governing  America,  is  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  preserve  even  the  shadow  of 
liberty,  and  is  a  duty  which  every  freeman  in 
America  owes  to  his  country,  to  himself  and  to 
his  posterity. 

"5.  That  the  resolution  lately  entered  into  by 
the  East-India  company,  to  send  out  their  tea  to 
America,  subject  to  the  payment  of  duties  on  its 

71 


THE   BOSTON   PORT  BILL 


being  landed  here,  is  an  open  attempt  to  enforce 
this  ministerial  plan,  and  a  violent  attack  upon 
the  liberties  of  America. 

"6.  That  it  is  the  duty  of  every  American 
to  oppose  this  attempt. 

"7.  That  whoever  shall  directly  or  indirectly, 
countenance  this  attempt,  or  in  any  wise  aid  or 
abet  in  unloading,  receiving,  or  vending  the  tea 
sent,  or  to  be  sent  out  by  the  East-India  com- 
pany, while  it  remains  subject  to  the  payment  of 
a  duty  here,  is  an  enemy  to  his  country. 

"  8 .  That  a  committee  be  immediately  chosen 
to  wait  on  those  gentlemen,  who,  it  is  reported, 
are  appointed  by  the  East-India  company,  to  re- 
ceive and  sell  said  tea  and  request  them,  from  a 
regard  to  their  own  character  and  the  peace  and 
good  order  of  the  city  and  province,  immediately 
to  resign  their  appointment." 

The  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  tea  ships  was 
everywhere  anxiously  awaited  and  measures  were 
adopted  to  prevent  the  landing  and  sale  of  their 
cargoes.  In  most  places  the  consignees  of  the  tea 
selected  by  the  East  India  Company  were  forcibly 
obliged  to  resign  their  appointments.  Among 
the  consignees  designated  to  receive  the  tea  at  Bos- 
ton were  the  two  sons  of  Governor  Hutchinson, 
hence  the  tea  destined  for  that  place  was  virtually 
consigned  to  the  Governor.  It  was  realized  in 
Boston  that  the  issue  thus  defined  must  of  neces- 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

sity  be  a  serious  one.  On  the  first  of  November 
all  the  consignees  were  petitioned  to  meet  the 
people  of  the  town  at  the  Liberty  Tree  and  then 
and  there  hand  in  their  resignations.  As  no  no- 
tice was  taken  of  this  entreaty,  they  were  waited 
upon  by  a  committee  who  endeavoured  to  obtain 
their  signatures  to  a  paper  promising  that  no  at- 
tempt would  be  made  to  land  the  tea,  and  that 
they  would  be  returned  immediately  to  London. 
As  this  request  was  not  complied  with,  a  town 
meeting  was  held  on  the  fifth  of  the  same  month, 
the  Philadelphia  Resolutions  above  quoted  were 
adopted,  and  the  consignees  again  asked  to  relin- 
quish their  commissions,  but  in  vain.  Twelve 
days  later  word  was  received  in  Boston  that  the 
Boston  tea  ships  had  actually  sailed.  Another 
town-meeting  was  held  the  next  day,  at  which  a 
new  attempt  was  made  to  obtain  the  resignation  of 
the  consignees.  On  the  22d  of  the  month  rep- 
resentatives from  the  neighbouring  towns  met 
the  Boston  Committee  and  addressed  letters  to  all 
other  towns  of  the  Province,  in  which  advice  was 
asked  upon  the  momentous  question  of  the  land- 
ing of  the  tea.  On  Sunday  the  2 8th  the  Dart- 
mouth, the  first  of  the  three  tea  ships,  was 
sighted.  A  promise  was  immediately  obtained 
from  the  owner  that  his  vessel  should  not  be 
entered  until  the  following  Tuesday.  The  three 
consignees  took  refuge  in  the  Castle  for  they 

73 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

feared  bodily  harm  from  their  excited  fellow 
townsmen.  The  next  day  a  mass  meeting  of  the 
people  of  Boston  and  surrounding  towns  was  held, 
and  the  assemblage,  comprising  several  thousands 
of  citizens,  voted  unanimously  that  "  the  tea 
should  be  sent  back  to  the  place  from  whence  it 
came  at  all  events,  and  that  no  duty  should  be 
paid  upon  it."  A  promise  not  to  unload  the  tea 
was  obtained  from  the  owner  and  master  of  the 
Dartmouth,  as  well  as  from  the  owners  of  the 
two  other  ships  daily  expected.  The  Governor, 
thoroughly  alarmed  at  the  situation,  solicited  the 
Council,  without  avail,  to  assume  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  tea. 

In  the  meantime  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  had  been  seeking  coun- 
sel from  the  similar  Committees  of  the  other 
Colonies.  The  replies  of  the  latter  encouraged 
the  people  of  Boston  to  maintain  the  stand  al- 
ready taken,  and  the  fate  of  the  Boston  tea  ships 
then  lost  its  local  significance  and  became,  so 
to  speak,  a  national  issue. 

The  arrival  of  the  two  belated  vessels  added 
to  the  excitement.  In  vain  the  owners  attempted 
to  secure  from  the  Collector  clearance  papers 
which  would  allow  the  return  of  the  cargoes. 
A  pass  for  the  same  purpose  was  peremptorily 
refused  by  the  Governor,  and  the  guns  of  the 
Castle  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbour  were  or- 


74 


DISAPPROVAL  OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

dered  to  be  kept  loaded  and  ready  to  fire  upon 
the  vessels,  if  they  should  attempt  to  clear  with- 
out the  proper  papers.  Two  men-of-war,  which 
had  been  laid  up  for  the  winter,  were  ordered 
into  commission  and  sent  to  guard  the  passages 
out  of  the  harbour.  The  King's  representatives 
were  not  willing  to  allow  the  return  of  the  tea, 
for  they  believed,  that  if  once  landed,  it  would 
soon  find  its  way  into  the  dining  rooms  of  the 
people  of  Boston. 

The  revenue  laws  demanded,  under  penalty 
of  seizure,  that  all  cargoes  be  landed  within 
twenty  days  after  arrival.  This  period  had  now 
nearly  expired  and  the  efforts  were  renewed  to 
secure  clearances  for  the  ships.  Thursday,  the 
1 6th  of  December,  was  a  momentous  day  in  the 
history  of  Boston  and  all  America.  The  town 
was  in  a  state  of  suppressed  excitement,  for  it 
was  well  understood  that  on  the  following  day, 
owing  to  the  provisions  of  the  revenue  laws,  the 
tea,  if  still  unloaded,  would  come  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  Custom  House,  be  landed  at  the 
Castle  and  there  receive  military  protection. 
At  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  two  thousand 
Bostonians  convened  at  the  Old  South  Church, 
and  patiently  awaited  the  news  of  the  result  of 
the  final  attempt  to  secure  from  the  Governor, 
who  had  retired  to  his  country  seat,  a  pass  which 
would  allow  the  Dartmouth  to  return  to  London. 


75 


THE   BOSTON  PORT   BILL 

During  this  period  of  suspense,  the  sense  of 
the  meeting  was  taken  as  to  the  measures  to  be 
adopted  in  case  the  Governor  should  persist  in 
his  refusal,  and  the  whole  assemblage  unani- 
mously voted  that  the  tea  must  not  be  landed. 
Not  until  nightfall  did  the  owner  of  the  Dart- 
mouth appear  with  the  news  that  the  permission 
to  clear  his  vessel  had  again  been  refused.  The 
meeting  then  adjourned.  The  story  of  the  im- 
mediate destruction  of  the  tea  needs  no  repeti- 
tion here. 

When  the  news  of  this  apparently  willful 
destruction  of  the  East  India  Company's  property 
first  reached  England,  the  popular  feeling  against 
Boston  ran  high.  The  enemies  of  America  were 
jubilant  at  what  they  termed  an  overt  act  of  re- 
bellion ;  even  the  friends  of  America  were  aghast 
at  the  lawlessness  displayed.  A  few  months 
later,  after  the  Ministry  had  passed  measures 
which  threatened  the  extermination  of  the  flour- 
ishing town  of  Boston,  and  after  the  full  story 
of  the  endeavours  made  by  her  citizens  to  avoid 
peaceably  the  issue  raised  by  their  Governor,  had 
appeared  in  the  press,  popular  opinion,  as  voiced 
in  letters  to  the  newspapers,  veered  around,  and 
the  insistence  of  Governor  Hutchinson  upon  the 
landing  of  the  tea  was  reprobated  as  being  an 
attempt  to  force  the  objectionable  tea  down  the 
throats  of  the  protesting  Bostonians. 

76 


DISAPPROVAL   OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

The  open  defiance  of  royal  authority  demon- 
strated in  the  incident  of  the  "  Boston  Tea 
Party "  only  increased  the  irritation  of  the  citi- 
zens of  Boston  against  those  in  the  King's  ser- 
vice. On  the  29th  of  January,  1774,  one  John 
Malcomb,  a  King's  Exciseman,  who  had  in- 
curred the  displeasure  of  the  Bostonians,  was 
tarred  and  feathered  and  treated  in  a  most  in- 
human way  (see  illustrations  on  pages  83,  92). 
While  many  of  the  King's  servants  in  America 
had  been  similarly  clothed  in  feather  garments  on 
account  of  their  misplaced  zeal  in  assisting  the 
execution  of  the  detested  revenue  laws,  the  viru- 
lent outrage  upon  Malcomb,  the  story  of  which 
reached  England  at  the  time  when  the  feeling 
against  Boston  was  so  vindictive,  was  considered 
to  be  an  attack  upon  the  King  himself  and  was 
often  cited  in  Parliament  and  in  the  press  as  de- 
monstrating the  necessity  of  maintaining  by  force 
some  responsible  form  of  government  in  the 
Province  of  Massachusetts-Bay,  and  thereby  giv- 
ing protection  to  those  in  the  King's  service. 

However,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  the  New  York  'Journal  of 
February  I7th,  1774,  Malcomb  brought  upon 
himself  his  punishment  by  his  offensive  person- 
ality and  by  conduct  in  no  way  consistent  with 
that  of  a  King's  officer,  though  undoubtedly  his 
previous  activity  in  assisting  in  the  enforcement 

77 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

of  the  revenue  laws  had  brought  him  into  bad 
odour  with  the  populace,  and  had  caused  him  to 
receive  a  suit  of  tar  and  feathers  which,  in  this 
instance,  had  been  put  on  over  his  regular  wear- 
ing apparel. 

"  BOSTON,  January  31. 

"  Last  Tuesday  about  two  o'clock  Mr. 
George  Robert  Twelves  Hewes  was  coming 
along  Fore  Street,  near  Capt.  Ridgway's,  and 
found  the  redoubted  John  Malcom,  standing 
over  a  small  boy,  who  was  pushing  a  little  sled 
before  him,  cursing,  damning,  threatening  and 
shaking  a  very  large  cane,  with  a  very  heavy 
ferril  on  it  over  his  head.  The  boy  at  that  time 
was  perfectly  quiet,  notwithstanding  which  Mal- 
com continued  his  threats  of  striking  him,  Mr. 
Hewes  conceiving  if  he  struck  him  with  that 
weapon,  he  must  have  killed  him,  came  up  to 
him,  and  said,  Mr.  Malcom,  I  hope  you  are  not 
going  to  strike  this  boy  with  that  stick.  Mal- 
com returned,  you  are  an  impertinent  rascal,  it 
is  none  of  your  business.  Mr.  Hewes  then  asked 
him,  what  had  the  child  done  to  him  ?  Malcom 
damned  him,  and  asked  him  if  he  was  going  to 
take  his  part  ?  Mr.  Hewes  answered  no  further 
than  this,  that  he  thought  it  was  a  shame  for 
him  to  strike  the  child  with  such  a  club,  if  he 
intended  to  strike  him.  Malcom  damned  Mr. 
Hewes,  called  him  a  vagabond,  and  said,  he 

78 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

would  let  him  know  he  should  not  speak  to  a 
gentleman  in  the  street.  Mr.  Hewes  returned, 
he  was  neither  a  rascal  nor  a  vagabond,  and 
though  a  poor  man,  was  in  as  good  credit  in 
town  as  he  was.  Malcom  called  him  a  liar,  and 
said  he  was  not,  nor  ever  would  be.  Mr.  Hewes 
retorted,  be  that  as  it  will,  I  never  was  tarred 
nor  feathered  any  how.  On  this  Malcom  struck 
him,  and  wounded  him  deeply  on  the  forehead, 
so  that  Mr.  Hewes  for  some  time  lost  his  senses. 
Capt.  Godfrey,  then  present,  interposed,  and 
after  some  altercation,  Malcom  went  home, 
when  the  people  were  gathering  round,  he 
came  out  and  abused  them  greatly,  saying,  you 
say  I  was  tarred  and  feathered,  and  that  it  was 
not  done  in  a  proper  manner,  damn  you,  let  me 
see  the  man  that  dare  do  it  better!  I  want  to 
see  it  done  in  the  new  fashioned  manner.  After 
Malcom  had  thus  bullied  the  people  some  time, 
and  Mr.  Usher  the  constable  had  persuaded  him 
into  the  house,  Mrs.  Malcom  threw  up  a  sash, 
and  begged  the  people  to  go  away,  and  Malcom 
came  suddenly  behind  her,  and  pushed  his  naked 
sword  thro'  the  opening,  pricked  Mr.  Waddel 
in  the  breast,  the  bone  stopping  its  course,  which 
would  otherwise  have  reached  his  vitals.  Mr. 
Waddel  on  this  made  a  stroke  at  the  window 
with  his  cane,  and  broke  a  square  of  glass, 
through  which  breach  he  again  made  a  pass, 

79 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

and  slightly  wounded  Mr.  Waddel,  who  a  sec- 
ond time  returned  the  blow,  and  Malcom  with- 
drawing, the  people  soon  after  dispersed. 

"  Mr.  Hewes,  after  having  his  wound  taken 
care  of,  went  to  Justice  Quincy  and  took  out  a 
warrant  for  Malcom,  and  gave  it  to  a  constable, 
who  went  to  Malcom's  house  to  serve  it,  but 
found  the  doors  shut  against  him,  and  was  told 
by  him,  from  a  window,  that  he  would  not  be 
taken  that  day,  as  he  should  be  followed  by  a 
damned  mob ;  but  would  surrender  himself  to- 
morrow afternoon.  Here  the  matter  appeared 
to  subside,  till  in  the  evening,  the  people  being 
informed  of  the  outrages  he  had  committed,  the 
threatenings  and  defiances  he  had  uttered;  and 
among  other  things,  that  he  would  split  down 
the  yankies  by  dozens  and  receive  20!.  sterling 
a  head  for  every  one  he  destroyed,  they  mustered 
and  went  to  his  house,  which  being  barred  against 
them,  and  menacing  with  his  loaded  pistols, 
which  he  declared  he  would  fire  upon  them  if 
they  came  near  him,  they  got  ladders,  and  beat- 
ing in  an  upper  window,  entered  the  house,  and 
took  him  without  loss  of  blood,  and  dragging 
him  out,  put  him  on  a  sled,  and  amidst  the 
huzzas  of  great  numbers,  brought  him  into  King 
street.  Several  gentlemen  endeavouring  to  divert 
the  populace  from  their  intention,  alledging  that 
he  was  open  to  the  laws  of  the  land,  which 

so 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE    COLONIAL   POLICY 

would  undoubtedly  award  a  reasonable  satisfac- 
tion to  the  parties  he  had  abused ;  they  answered 
he  had  been  an  old  impudent  and  mischievous 
offender — he  had  seized  vessels  on  account  of 
sailors  having  a  bottle  or  two  of  gin  on  board — 
he  had  in  office,  and  otherwise,  behaved  in  the 
most  capricious,  insulting  and  daringly  abusive 
manner — and  on  every  occasion  discovered  the 
most  rooted  enmity  to  this  country,  and  the  de- 
fenders of  its  rights — that,  in  case  they  let  him 
go,  they  might  expect  a  like  satisfaction  as  they 
had  received  in  the  cases  of  Richardson  and  the 
soldiers,  and  the  other  friends  of  government. 
With  these,  and  such  like  arguments,  together 
with  a  gentle  crowding  of  persons  not  of  their 
way  of  thinking,  out  of  the  ring,  they  proceeded 
to  elevate  Mr.  Malcom  from  his  sled  into  a  cart, 
and  stripping  him  to  buff  and  breeches,  gave 
him  a  modern  jacket  and  hied  him  away  to  lib- 
erty-tree, where  they  proposed  to  him  to  re- 
nounce his  present  commission,  and  swear  that 
he  would  never  hold  another  inconsistent  with 
the  liberties  of  his  country ;  this  he  obstinately 
refusing,  they  then  carted  him  to  the  gallows, 
passed  a  rope  round  his  neck,  and  threw  the 
other  end  over  the  beam,  as  if  they  intended  to 
hang  him :  But  this  manoeuvre  he  set  at  defi- 
ance. They  then  basted  him  for  some  time  with 
a  rope's  end,  and  threatened  to  cut  his  ears  off, 

81 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

and  on  this  he  complied,  and  they  then  brought 
him  home." 

On  the  3ist  of  October  in  the  same  year,  at 
a  time  when  London  and  much  of  the  rest  of 
England  were  clamouring  for  justice  for  Amer- 
ica, and  protesting  against  the  enforcement  of 
the  measures  which  threatened  the  very  destruc- 
tion of  the  lately  prosperous  town  of  Boston,  a 
cartoon,  entitled  "The  BOSTONIANS  Paying  the 
EXCISE-MAN,  or  TARRING  &  FEATHERING  " 
— the  first  of  a  series  of  five  folio  mezzotint 
cartoons  illustrating  the  existing  state  of  public 
feeling  in  America  —  was  issued  by  Messrs. 
Rob*.  Sayer  &  J.  Bennett,  the  well-known  Map 
and  Print-sellers  of  No.  53  Fleet  Street,  and 
placed  for  sale  in  the  English  market.  The  sug- 
gestion for  this  cartoon,  a  reproduction  of  which 
appears  on  the  opposite  page,  was  unquestion- 
ably obtained  from  the  following  article,  which 
shortly  before  had  appeared  in  the  London  news- 
papers, thereby  throwing  further  light  upon  the 
details  of  the  punishment  of  Malcomb : 

"  A  Correspondent  says  he  has  been  informed, 
by  a  Gentleman  lately  arrived  from  Philadelphia, 
that  when  Mr.  John  Malcomb,  an  Officer  of  the 
Customs  at  Boston,  was  leading,  tarred  and  feath- 
ered, to  the  Gallows,  with  a  rope  about  his  Neck, 
he  was  asked  by  one  of  the  Mob  whether  he  was 
not  thirsty,  which  was  natural  to  a  Man  expect- 

82 


The  B  0  N  TOP*  lAN's  fin-ing  the  TCXC  ISF.  -M  A^,  or  TATRWINR  it  F-R  ATUEKW 


f  S«yrr«  JJtfniK-K.  M«p  I  IVinlMbt:  VUrirrt  StlrrU*  t>»  Art  Aiwti  jUkl  ri^  4 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

ing  to  be  hanged.  The  unfortunate  Officer  of 
the  Customs,  as  well  as  he  could  speak,  answered 
yes,  and  immediately  a  large  Bowl  of  strong  Tea 
was  put  into  his  Hands,  with  Orders  to  drink 
the  King's  Health.  Whether  it  was  owing  to 
Loyalty  or  Thirst  is  not  material ;  poor  Malcomb 
Half  emptied  the  Bowl.  He  was  then  told  to 
mend  his  Draught,  and  drink  the  Queen's  Health. 
Though  he  had  done  his  utmost  for  the  King,  he 
found  he  must  do  something  for  the  Queen  ;  and 
having  taken  off  Half  the  Remainder  of  the  Bowl, 
he  presented  it  back  to  the  Persons  from  whom 
he  had  received  it.  Hold  !  hold !  cries  his  Friend, 
you  are  not  to  forget  the  rest  of  the  Royal  Fam- 
ily ;  come,  drink  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  Re- 
plenish, replenish,  cries  the  loyal  American  ;  and 
instantly  poor  Malcomb  saw  two  Quarts  more  of 
what  he  was  heartily  sick  of.  Make  Haste,  cries 
another  loyal  American ;  you  have  nine  more 
Healths  to  drink  before  you  arrive  at  the  Gal- 
lows. For  God's  Sake,  Gentlemen,  be  merciful, 
I  am  ready  to  burst ;  if  I  drink  a  Drop  more,  I 
shall  die.  Suppose  you  do,  cries  one  of  the  Mob, 
you  die  in  a  good  Cause,  and  it  is  as  well  to  be 
drowned  as  hanged,  and  immediately  the  drench- 
ing Horn  was  put  to  his  Mouth,  to  the  Health 
of  the  Bishop  of  Osnaburg  [the  second  son  of 
the  King],  and,  having  gone  through  the  other 
eight,  he  turned  pale,  shook  his  Head,  and 

85 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

instantly  filled  the  Bowl  which  he  had  just  emp- 
tied. What  says  the  American,  are  you  sick  of 
the  Royal  Family  ?  No,  replies  Malcomb,  my 
Stomach  nauseates  the  Tea ;  it  rises  at  it  like 
Poison.  And  yet,  you  Rascal,  returns  the  Am- 
erican, your  whole  Fraternity  at  the  Custom 
house  would  drench  us  with  this  Poison,  and  we 
are  to  have  our  Throats  cut  if  it  will  not  stay 
upon  our  Stomachs.  The  merciful  Americans 
desisted  and  the  Procession  was  continued  towards 
the  Gallows/' 

This  cartoon,  while  ostensibly  telling  the 
story  of  an  incident  which  occurred  in  this  notori- 
ous case  of  tarring  and  feathering,  had  far  greater 
significance.  Entirely  dependent  for  its  sale  upon 
its  success  in  striking  a  sympathetic  chord  among 
the  people  of  London,  it  depicted  the  opinion  so 
freely  expressed  in  the  press,  that  the  destruction 
of  the  tea  at  Boston  was  the  natural  result  of  the 
enforcement  of  a  policy,  which  if  carried  out, 
would  have  poisoned  the  "  Tree  of  Liberty  "  in 
the  Colonies. 

A  study  of  the  details  of  the  picture  shows 
that  the  cartoonist  had  more  than  a  passing  knowl- 
edge of  affairs  in  America.  The  crude  home- 
made garments  in  which  he  had  clothed  Mai- 
comb's  tormentors  were  surely  suggestive  of  the 
inroads  the  newly  started  woolen  manufactories 
of  America  had  made  into  English  trade.  The 

86 


DISAPPROVAL   OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

majestic  LIBERTY  TREE,  from  which  a  noose  was 
suspended,  had  often  been  described  in  the  press 
as  the  "  Great  Tree  at  the  south  part  of  the 
town."  The  depiction  upon  the  trunk  of  the 
latter,  of  an  inverted  Stamp  Act  placard,  is  an- 
other illustration  of  the  impression  then  preva- 
lent, which  was  pointed  out  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter, that  the  Stamp  Act,  though  long  since  re- 
pealed, was  the  primary  cause  of  the  trouble 
then  existing  between  Great  Britain  and  her  Am- 
erican subjects. 

While  the  print  pictured  a  special  incident  in 
the  punishment  of  John  Malcomb,  it  portrayed 
as  well  an  "American  custom"  of  tarring  and 
feathering  which  was  thoroughly  familiar  to  those 
upon  whose  patronage  the  print-sellers  depended 
for  their  livelihood,  the  English  press  having 
given  to  their  readers  numerous  accounts  of 
this  method  of  "  Paying  the  EXCISE-MAN  "  in 
America  for  the  five  years  previous.  It  must  be 
said,  however,  that  this  treatment  was  not  seri- 
ously objected  to  by  many  in  England,  for  as  a 
rule  it  was  known  to  have  been  accorded  only  to 
those  who  had  acted  as  spies  and  informers,  or 
to  those  who  had  become  obnoxious  to  the  ma- 
jority on  account  of  their  refusal  to  abide  by  the 
articles  of  the  Non-Importation  Associations. 

In  the  early  part  of  March,  1774,  the  fol- 
lowing item  of  news  appeared  in  various  Eng- 

87 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

lish  papers.  It  called  attention  to  the  odium  in 
which  the  consignees  of  the  Boston  tea  were 
held,  and  possibly  created  the  erroneous  impres- 
sion that  Boston  maintained  a  regularly  organ- 
ized Committee  for  "Tarring  and  Feathering" : 
"Boston,  Jan.  17.  On  Saturday  Morning  the 
following  was  posted  up  in  the  most  publick 
Parts  of  this  Town. 

"Brethren  and  Fellow  Citizens! 

"  You  may  depend  that  those  odious  Miscre- 
ants and  detestable  Tools  to  Ministry  and  Gov- 
ernor, the  Tea  Consignees  (those  Traitors  to  their 
Country,  Butchers,  who  have  done,  and  are  do- 
ing every  Thing  to  murder  and  destroy  all  that 
shall  stand  in  the  Way  of  their  private  Interest) 
are  determined  to  come  and  reside  again  in  the 
Town  of  Boston. 

"  I  therefore  give  you  this  early  Notice,  that 
you  may  hold  yourselves  in  Readiness,  on  the 
shortest  Notice,  to  give  them  such  a  Reception 
as  such  vile  Ingrates  deserve. 

"  JOYCE,  jun. 

Chairman  of  the  Committee  for  Tarring  and  Feathering  : 

"  If  any  Person  should  be  so  hardy  as  to  tear 
this  down,  they  may  expect  my  severest  Resent- 
ment. J.  jun." 

So  thoroughly  appreciated  was  this  Ameri- 
can custom  in  London  at  this  time,  that  a  "  Tar- 


88 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

ring  and  Feathering  "  scene  was  introduced  into 
a  Pantomime  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  Covent  Gar- 
den, and  became  one  of  the  features  of  the  even- 
ing, as  may  be  learned  from  the  comment  on  ther 
play,  given  below,  which  was  taken  from  the  Lon- 
don  Chronicle  of  November  I9th-22nd,  1/74: 

"The  new  pastoral  pantomime  entertain- 
ment of  the  Druids  was  performed  last  night 
for  the  second  time  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  Co- 
vent  Garden,  with  alterations.  The  revision  it 
has  undergone  since  Saturday  evening  has  been 
of  infinite  service  to  the  piece,  a  distinct  chain 
of  connection  being  now  discernible  through 
the  whole ;  several  absurdities  are  expunged,  and 
a  happy  trick  or  two  introduced  in  the  panto- 
mime; one  of  which,  that  of  Pantaloon's  re- 
ceiving the  American  suit  of  'tar  and  feathers' 
occasions  an  uncommon  roar  through  the  house. 
The  audience  being  a  more  peaceable  one  than 
that  which  usually  frequent  a  first  performance, 
we  could  attend  with  more  pleasure  to  the  music, 
and  therefore  found  just  cause  of  approbation. 
The  choruses  are  noble,  particularly  the  last  by 
the  Druids,  which  is  in  every  respect  full  and 
masterly." 

The  recognition  of  the  appropriateness  of 
clothing  certain  offenders  in  feather  garments 
was  not  confined  to  London,  for  the  Metropol- 
itan press  during  the  years  1770-1775  not  in- 

89 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

frequently  noted  among  other  paragraphs  of 
news  from  the  towns  along  the  coast  of  Eng- 
land, where  smuggling  was  popularly  regarded 
as  a  legitimate  vocation,  that  certain  energetic 
Excise-men  had  received  from  the  irate  people 
"American  suits"  or  "American  dresses,"  these 
terms  being  too  thoroughly  understood  to  need 
explanation. 

As  voicing  the  sentiment  prevalent  among 
certain  classes  in  England  concerning  Lords 
North,  Mansfield  and  Bute,  as  well  as  indicating 
the  local  appreciation  of  the  new  use  found  for 
TAR  and  FEATHERS  in  America,  the  Editor  of 
the  Kentish  Gazette  stated  in  the  columns  of  his 
paper  of  February  2nd,  1775,  that  "A  correspond- 
ent informs  us  that  the  following  sentiment  on 
a  certain  triumvirate  is  now  the  reigning  toast: 

May  Feathers  and  Tar  be  the   next  Birth  Day 

Suit, 
And  the  Block  be  the  fate  of  N M and 

B- 

He  further  remarks: 

What  so  proper  as  Tar  for  so  Scabby  a  flock, 
There  is  but  one  thing:  that's  their  Heads  on 
the  Block." 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  this 
sentiment  was  not  confined  to  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Canterbury,  as  during  the  next  three 

90 


A  New  Method  ol  MACARONY  MAKING, as  praclifed  al  BOSTON. 

Fm   l/<t  CMtttll,  H,«ut  OfficcM   tait,/lll,/  //ir'/'r,l  '.  I       .  I >„////<•,/  ,/ir>,i/l ',/ /Hill   ,,,i  lrr/1  /v///  /;/luuiaiut  6lf,nt 

Tkty  TmiitluM.  and  Hat/if  n/  /inn  ,/u.it  , i.,  ,f,.u  .,rr ,  I     r'//«/>»/  /'^</»'/w  V,Vv/./.Wr  ///,y  umM  ,/mi,4  A,m  no  man 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

months  comments  on  the  popularity  of  this  toast 
appeared  in  at  least  three  London  newspapers. 

Earlier  in  the  same  month  another  mezzo- 
tint cartoon,  illustrating  the  same  incident  por- 
trayed in  the  print  just  described  had  appeared 
for  sale  at  the  "  Map  &  Print  Warehouse  of  Car- 
ington  Bowles,  No.  6g  in  St.  Paul's  Church  Tard, 
London."*  In  this  print  the  place  of  the  Ex- 
ciseman's revolt  against  tea  drinking  was  pictured 
inaccurately  as  being,  not  at  the  Liberty  Tree, 
but  beneath  the  scaffold  under  which  Malcomb 
had  been  kept  for  four  long  hours  on  a  cold  win- 
ter's evening  before  he  complied  with  the  de- 
mands for  his  resignation  from  the  Customs-Ser- 
vice. The  title,  "  A  New  Method  of  MACARONY 
MAKING,  as  practised  at  BOSTON."  was  undoubt- 
edly suggested  by  the  common  report  that  Mal- 
comb was  to  become  a  King's  Pensioner.  The 
verification  of  the  rumour  was  thus  noted  in  the 
London  Chronicle  of  December  1 5th- 1 7th,  1774, 
"  The  Exciseman  who  was  tarred  and  feathered 
at  Boston  and  lately  arrived  in  England,  has  ob- 
tained a  pension  of  200^  per  annum." 

The  phraseology  of  the  inscription  plainly 

*  Carington  Bowles  also  published  under  the  same  date  a  small 
mezzotint  similar  in  all  respects  save  size  to  the  one  here  reproduced.      It 
measured  4T7S  inches  in  width  by  5^  inches  in  length  and  was  entitled 
"  A  New  Method  of  MACARONY  MAKING  as  practised  at  BOSTON 

in  NORTH  AMERICA." 
and  numbered  217.     It  lacked  the  verses  found  on  the  larger  print. 

93 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

bespeaks  the  friendly  attitude  of  its  designer  to- 
ward the  Bostonians  and  his  desire  to  hold  up  to 
ridicule  the  Ministry  and  Court  party,  for  at  this 
period  MACARONY,  while  primarily  the  name 
applied  to  a  London  exquisite,  had  degenerated 
into  a  term  which  implied  contempt  and  derision. 
The  print-sellers  flouted  in  their  windows  count- 
less portraits  of  "  Macarony "  doctors,  artists, 
barbers,  countesses,  etc.,  and  many  contributors 
to  the  press  of  both  prose  and  verse  found  this 
"  race  of  people  "  pleasing  subjects  for  their  wit 
and  satire.  A  touch  of  humour  was  injected  into 
this  cartoon  by  the  droll  expression  upon  the 
face  of  the  participants  and  the  doggerel  verse 
inscribed  below  the  title  : 

For  the  Custom  House  Officers  landing  the  Tea, 
They  Tarr  d  him,  and  Feather  d  him,  just  as  you  see, 
And  they  drench'  d  him  so  well  both  behind  and  before, 
That  he  beggd  for  God's  sake  they  would  drench  him 
no  more. 

Though  this  episode  had  no  relation  to  the 
landing  of  the  tea,  yet  such  prominence  had  been 
given  to  the  Administration's  attempt  to  force  tea 
upon  America,  that  poetical  license  was  taken 
in  attributing  the  punishment  meted  out  to  the 
Exciseman  as  being  retribution  for  the  perform- 
ance of  duties  in  connection  with  the  above 
stated  project  of  the  Ministry. 


94 


DISAPPROVAL   OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  scene  is  the  em- 
bellishment of  the  hat  of  one  of  the  participants 
in  the  affair  with  the  numerals  45,  which  may 
be  taken  as  another  indication  of  the  cartoonist's 
knowledge  of  the  sympathy  of  the  English  peo- 
ple with  the  cause  of  the  Colonies,  for  since  1764 
45  had  been  adopted  by  the  followers  of  John 
Wilkes,  then  (1774)  the  popular  Lord  Mayor  of 
London,  as  a  symbol  of  their  devotion  to  the 
cause  he  was  upholding. 

Any  attempt  to  describe  popular  sentiment  in 
England,  and  the  strong  compassion  there  felt  for 
the  Americans  in  their  distress  would  woefully 
fail  unless  it  contained  the  story  of  John  Wilkes, 
member  of  Parliament,  and  the  editor  of  the 
North  Briton,  No.  45.  During  the  twelve  years 
prior  to  the  American  Revolution  John  Wilkes 
had  been  regarded  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean,  as 
the  most  persistent  and  virulent  of  those  who  were 
contending  against  the  substitution  of  the  royal 
prerogative  for  constitutional  government,  and 
his  persecution  by  the  Ministry,  his  trials  and 
subsequent  imprisonment,  and  his  final  successes 
excited  the  keenest  interest  in  both  countries. 
Wilkes  was  a  gentleman  by  birth,  a  man  of  high 
education,  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  a 
great  lover  of  fine  books.  It  may  be  appropri- 
ately noted  here  that  in  the  latter  portion  of  his 
life  he  republished  limited  editions  of  several 

95 


THE    BOSTON   PORT    BILL 

of  the  classics,  one  of  these  the  "  Poems  of 
Catullus "  he  edited  and  printed  in  an  edition 
consisting  of  three  copies  on  vellum  and  one  hun- 
dred on  fine  paper.  Though  a  professing  mem- 
ber of  the  Church  of  England,  he  was  liberal  in 
his  tendencies  and  won  many  adherents  among 
the  followers  of  John  Wesley  by  contributing  to 
the  fund  collected  for  supporting  and  protecting 
the  civil  and  religious  rights  of  the  Dissenters. 
Although  assailed  by  contemporary  writers  and 
historians  on  account  of  his  licentiousness,  his 
morals  were  no  worse  than  those  of  many  then 
prominent  in  the  Ministry  and  in  public  life,  for 
the  period  was  one  of  great  moral  laxity.  His 
devotion  to  his  daughter,  his  only  child,  was  touch- 
ing, and  continued  throughout  his  life  and  his 
loyalty  to  his  friends  was  unquestioned.  He  had 
been  High  Sheriff  of  Buckinghamshire,  Colonel 
of  the  local  Militia,  and  in  1 757  was  elected  Mem- 
ber of  Parliament  from  his  home  county.  On 
taking  his  seat  in  Parliament,  he  announced  his 
adherence  to  the  party  of  William  Pitt. 

Wilkes  first  became  a  prominent  figure  in 
English  politics  in  1763.  It  was  at  the  time 
when  the  King  was  ridding  himself  of  the  sup- 
port of  the  great  Whig  families  and  introducing 
into  his  council  men  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with 
his  ideas  of  the  infallibility  of  the  royal  preroga- 
tive. His  action  in  removing  Pitt  and  ele- 

96 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

vating  Lord  Bute,  a  Scotch  nobleman,  to  the 
office  of  Prime  Minister,  gave  England  a  shock 
which  was  felt  by  all  classes,  for  the  memories  of 
the  Jacobite  Rebellion  of  1745,  originating  as  it 
did  in  Scotland,  were  still  fresh. 

Jealous  of  Pitt's  successful  prosecution  of  the 
war  and  his  personal  popularity  thereby  obtained, 
the  King  had  resolved  that  the  contest  with 
France  must  be  quickly  ended.  The  betrayal 
of  England's  ally,  Frederick  the  Great,  King  of 
Prussia,  who  was  a  popular  hero  in  England  and 
America,  and  an  ignominious  peace  with  Eng- 
land's inveterate  enemies  increased  the  indigna- 
tion against  the  new  "Favourite."  For  the  pur- 
pose of  educating  the  masses  to  support  the  royal 
policy,  the  pen  of  Tobias  Smollett,  the  novelist, 
was  purchased  and  funds  were  supplied  him  to 
carry  on  his  weekly  paper  The  Briton,  in  the  col- 
umns of  which  Smollett  made  every  effort  to  per- 
suade the  people  of  England  that  the  policy  of 
the  new  Administration  was  wisdom  and  per- 
fection itself. 

Wilkes  was  most  extreme  in  his  hatred  of 
the  Scotch  and  their  influence  with  the  King. 
With  a  view  to  counteracting  the  campaign  of 
education  now  being  waged  in  behalf  of  the 
Scotch  Favourite,  Wilkes  started  a  paper  which 
he  called  the  North  Briton.  The  opening  sen- 
tence of  its  first  number  struck  the  popular  fancy 

97 


THE   BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

and  immediately  gave  this  sheet  a  hold  upon  the 
community  at  large,  for  it  boldly  declared  "  the 
liberty  of  the  Press  is  the  birthright  of  a  Briton 
and  is  justly  esteemed  the  foremost  bulwark  of 
the  liberties  of  this  country."  The  lucid  and 
brilliant  pen  of  its  editor,  his  powerful  use  of  the 
bitterest  sarcasm  and  his  fearless  discard  of  the  in- 
nuendo, then  considered  a  necessity  by  the  writers 
in  opposition  to  the  Administration,  soon  had  all 
England  ridiculing  the  Government  and  admir- 
ing Wilkes.  The  sudden  resignation  of  the  Earl 
of  Bute  and  the  appointment  to  his  office  of 
George  Grenville,  the  brother-in-law  of  Pitt  and 
the  brother  of  Earl  Temple,  the  intimate  friend 
of  Wilkes,  convinced  the  Editor  of  the  North 
Briton  that  his  paper  had  no  further  usefulness, 
hence  after  the  forty-fourth  number  he  suspended 
its  publication. 

The  interesting  story  of  the  issuing  of  the 
North  Briton,  No.  45,  must  be  dismissed  with 
the  brief  statement  that  shortly  before  the  pro- 
rogation of  Parliament,  Wilkes  chanced  to  call 
on  his  friend  Earl  Temple,  and  found  him  en- 
gaged in  discussing  with  Pitt  the  contents  of  the 
King's  Speech,  which  was  shortly  to  be  deliv- 
ered before  Parliament,  and  a  copy  of  which 
had  been  furnished  Temple  by  his  brother,  the 
Prime  Minister.  The  three  agreed  that  the 
Speech  was  in  no  way  a  truthful  exposition  of 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

the  affairs  of  the  Nation,  and  that  its  tone  dem- 
onstrated that  the  Favourite,  though  nominally 
no  longer  in  office,  was  in  reality  the  guiding 
spirit  of  the  Throne. 

Wilkes  hurried  home  and  wrote  an  article, 
which  contained  the  essence  of  this  conversa- 
tion, and  published  it  in  the  North  Briton,  No. 
45,  on  April  23rd,  1763. 

The  article  itself  at  first  created  no  more 
general  comment  than  previous  onslaughts  on  the 
administration  which  had  appeared  in  the  North 
Briton.  The  King  was  very  angry  at  the  renewal 
of  the  attack,  and  instigated  the  issuing  of  a 
"  General  Warrant,"  under  which  Wilkes  was 
arrested  and  committed  to  the  Tower,  his  house 
searched,  his  private  safes  broken  open,  and  his 
private  papers  stolen.  The  publishers  and  print- 
ers of  the  North  Briton  were  placed  under  arrest 
and  the  machinery  of  the  Courts  put  in  motion 
to  secure  Wilkes'  conviction  for  treason.  At  this 
lawless  action  all  England  was  in  a  ferment,  and 
even  those  who  seldom  voiced  their  opinion  on 
public  questions  joined  the  Favourite's  enemies 
in  denouncing  this  new  and  radical  procedure, 
which,  if  upheld,  would  have  taken  away  all  sense 
of  security  of  private  rights,  and  which  was  thus 
characterized  by  a  great  jurist:  "This  evidence 
was  collected  with  as  much  violence,  and  with 
as  little  right  by  law,  as  some  other  collections 

99 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

are  made,  for  which  the  collectors  are  hanged 
when  taken." 

Wilkes  secured  his  discharge  from  the  Court 
upon  the  technical  ground  that,  being  a  mem- 
ber of  Parliament,  he  was  privileged  against  ar- 
rest for  the  offences  enumerated.  The  venomous 
treatment  to  which  Wilkes  had  been  subjected 
made  his  release  from  confinement  a  signal  for 
public  rejoicing.  Undismayed  by  the  hostility 
of  the  Crown,  Wilkes,  upon  the  advice  of  Earl 
Temple  and  his  counsel,  Mr.  Serjeant  Glynn, 
sent  the  Secretaries  of  State  a  letter  in  which  he 
stated  that  on  his  return  home  he  found  that  his 
house  had  been  robbed  and  that  he  had  been  in- 
formed that  the  stolen  property  was  in  the  pos- 
session of  their  Lordships,  and  insisted  on  the 
return  of  the  same. 

The  next  day  he  unsuccessfully  attempted  to 
obtain  a  warrant  to  search  for  the  stolen  goods. 
The  correspondence  which  took  place  between 
Wilkes  and  the  Secretaries,  in  his  efforts  to  se- 
cure the  return  of  his  papers,  was  made  the  basis 
for  another  attempt  by  the  King  to  secure  Wilkes' 
conviction  for  treason. 

Wilkes  then  brought  actions  for  false  im- 
prisonment against  the  Secretaries  of  State  and 
all  other  persons  who  had  had  a  hand  in  his  ar- 
rest. The  cost  of  these  actions  was  defrayed  by 
Earl  Temple,  without  whose  necessary  assist- 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL  POLICY 

ance  the  King  would  not  have  received  the  sud- 
den check  to  the  arbitrary  course  he  had  inau- 
gurated. The  whole  power  of  the  Ministry 
was  called  into  play  against  Wilkes.  The  suits 
were  defended  at  the  expense  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Despite  every  effort  Wilkes  won  his  case 
and  was  awarded  heavy  damages.  The  Gov- 
ernment admitted  that  the  cost  of  their  attempt 
to  suppress  the  North  Briton,  No.  45  amounted 
to  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling. 

Wilkes  then  decided  to  issue  complete  sets 
of  the  North  Briton,  but  not  finding  printers 
willing  to  endanger  their  liberty  by  printing  the 
edition,  he  was  obliged  to  set  up  a  printing  press 
in  his  own  home. 

In  the  middle  of  November  Parliament  was 
opened  and  the  attack  upon  Wilkes  was  renewed. 
The  venal  majority  in  the  House  of  Commons 
passed  a  resolution,  which  declared  that  the 
paper  entitled  the  North  Briton,  No.  45  "is  a 
false,  scandalous,  and  seditious  libel  etc."  and 
ordered  its  contents  to  be  publicly  burned  by 
the  common  hangman. 

This  motion  was  strenuously  opposed  by 
many  who  dreaded  the  effect  of  the  growing 
domination  of  the  King  over  the  liberties  of 
the  people.  Pitt  spoke  no  less  than  forty  times 
against  it.  The  indignation  at  its  passage  was 
such  that  when  the  hangman  was  about  to  com- 


101 


THE   BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

mit  the  copy  of  the  North  Briton,  No.  45  to  the 
flames,  he  was  forced  to  burn  in  its  place  a  boot 
and  a  petticoat,  symbols  of  Lord  Bute  and  the 
King's  mother,  whose  relations  with  each  other 
were  the  subject  of  severe  criticism.  One  of 
Wilkes'  printers,  who  was  sentenced  to  the  pil- 
lory for  his  part  in  the  reprinting  No.  45,  was 
taken  to  the  stand  in  a  coach  marked  "45,"  and 
presented  with  a  purse  containing  ^200,  the 
proceeds  of  a  collection  there  made  in  his  be- 
half. By  the  bold  position  he  had  taken,  Wilkes 
had  thus  won  for  himself  a  warm  spot  in  the 
hearts  of  all  who  had  England's  true  interests  at 
heart. 

With  a  view  of  weakening  Wilkes'  hold 
upon  the  people  a  bitter  attack  was  next  made 
upon  him  in  the  House  of  Lords.  The  charge 
there  laid  against  him  was  for  printing  at  his 
private  press  a  portion  of  the  "Essay  on  Wo- 
man," a  licentious  parody  on  Pope's  "Essay  on 
Man."  This  attack  failed  in  its  purpose,  being 
led  by  the  Earl  of  Sandwich,  a  notorious  liber- 
tine, who  gained  therein  the  sobriquet  "Jemmy 
Twitcher,"  by  which  he  was  derisively  known 
in  England  and  America  during  the  rest  of  his 
life.  The  hypocrisy  and  maliciousness  of  this 
persecution  was  so  apparent  that  the  popular 
estimation  in  which  Wilkes  was  held  was  little 
lessened. 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

Wilkes  was  forced  into  a  duel  by  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Commons  desirous  of  currying 
favour  with  the  King,  and  before  he  had  fully 
recovered  from  the  wound  therein  received,  and 
while  absent  on  a  visit  to  his  daughter  in  France,  on 
January  1 9th,  1 764,was  expelled  from  the  House 
for  having  written  the  article  which  had  given 
fame  to  the  North  Briton,  No.  45.  He  was  then 
tried  and  found  guilty  in  the  court  of  King's 
Bench  of  republishing  The  North  Briton  No. 
45,  and  for  printing  a  portion  of  the  "  Essay  on 
Woman/'  the  evidence  for  which  offence  had 
been  stolen  from  his  house.  Failing  to  appear 
either  to  defend  his  case  or  to  receive  his  sen- 
tence, Wilkes  was  declared  by  the  Court  to  be 
an  outlaw.  The  King  had  finally  won,  but  at 
the  cost  of  alienating  the  friends  of  constitu- 
tional government  in  England. 

After  having  remained  abroad  for  four  years 
Wilkes  returned  to  London  in  1768  and  solic- 
ited a  pardon  without  avail,  although  the  Min- 
istry deemed  that  the  granting  of  this  request 
would  have  removed  Wilkes  from  the  pedestal 
of  martyrdom  upon  which  popular  opinion  had 
placed  him.  The  predicament  of  the  Admin- 
istration was  thus  aptly  described  by  the  Bishop 
of  Carlisle  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Grenville :  "  The 
ministers  are  embarrassed  to  the  last  degree  how 
to  act  with  regard  to  Wilkes.  It  seems  they  are 

103 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

afraid  to  ask  the  King  for  his  pardon,  as  that  is 
a  subject  his  majesty  will  not  easily  hear  the  least 
mention  of;  and  they  are  apprehensive  if  he  has 
it  not,  that  the  mob  of  London  will  rise  in  his 
favour,  which  God  forbid." 

Wilkes  then  dauntlessly  announced  himself  as 
a  candidate  for  Parliament  from  the  City  of  Lon- 
don. Failing  of  election  by  a  narrow  margin,  he 
offered  himself  to  the  Freeholders  of  the  County 
of  Middlesex  and  was  by  them  elected  to  the 
House  of  Commons  by  an  overwhelming  vote. 

The  ovation  Wilkes  received  from  the  peo- 
ple and  the  press,  again  warned  the  Ministry 
that  his  supporters  were  too  great  a  factor  to  be 
disregarded,  and  further  unsuccessful  attempts 
were  made  by  the  King's  advisers  to  secure  the 
royal  pardon. 

On  technical  grounds,  however,  Wilkes  se- 
cured from  the  Court  the  reversal  of  his  out- 
lawry, and  now  appeared  before  the  Court  of 
King's  Bench  to  receive  the  sentence  for  the 
offenses  he  had  been  found  guilty  of  four  years 
before.  The  punishment  prescribed  consisted 
of  twenty-two  months'  imprisonment  and  a  fine 
of  ^1000,  besides  the  giving  of  surety  for  his 
good  behaviour  for  seven  years.  On  his  way  to 
prison  the  populace  captured  the  carriage,  drove 
away  his  guards  and  drew  him  in  triumph 
through  London.  Wilkes'  adherents  then  qui- 

104 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL  POLICY 

eted  down,  for  it  was  reported  that  their  idol 
would  be  released  in  time  to  take  his  seat  in  the 
Parliament  which  was  to  open  the  i  oth  of  May, 

1768.  On  the  morning  of  that  day  an  immense 
gathering    appeared   before    the    prison    in    St. 
George's-Fields  and  awaited  the  outcoming  of 
their  hero.    Fearing  a  demonstration,  the  Min- 
istry had  provided  a  regiment  of  troops  to  quell 
any  attempted  attack  upon  the  jail.     Upon  some 
riotous  proceeding  the  soldiers  fired   upon  the 
assemblage  and  the  "affair  of  St.  George's "  in 
England  redounded  against  the  Administration 
with   a  force   similar  to  that   set  in   motion  in 
America  by  the  "  Boston  Massacre." 

Seven  months  after  this  event  Wilkes  for- 
warded from  his  prison,  to  one  of  the  London 
papers,  a  copy  of  the  order,  conceived  some  three 
weeks  before  the  event  occurred,  for  the  pres- 
ence of  the  troops  at  St.  George's,  and  sent  with 
it  a  caustic  letter  in  which  he  denounced  the 
Ministry  for  deliberately  planning  the  murder  of 
his  supporters. 

For  this  Wilkes  was  summoned  from  his 
prison  quarters  to  the  Bar  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons where  he  defiantly  defended  his  action. 
His  expulsion  for  this  and  previous  affairs  fol- 
lowed, after  long  debate,  on  the  3rd  of  February, 

1769.  Within  less  than  two  weeks  he  was  re- 
turned to  Parliament,  without  opposition,  by  the 

105 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Freeholders  of  Middlesex.  Upon  being  declared 
ineligible  to  serve  in  Parliament,  he  was  again 
returned  less  than  a  month  later  and  again  his 
election  was  declared  void. 

The  Administration  saw  the  necessity  of  tak- 
ing a  hand  in  the  next  election,  and  selected  as 
a  candidate  in  opposition  one  Colonel  Luttrell, 
who  though  already  a  member  of  Parliament, 
offered  his  services  to  the  King,  as  a  candidate 
against  Wilkes.  Although  all  the  influences  and 
resources  of  the  Crown  strenuously  supported 
Luttrell,  and  the  forces  of  bribery  and  corrup- 
tion were  called  into  play  in  his  behalf,  such 
was  the  integrity  of  the  men  of  Middlesex  that 
Wilkes  was  returned  for  the  fourth  time,  and  by 
the  astonishing  vote  of  nearly  four  to  one.  Not- 
withstanding this,  the  House  of  Commons  re- 
solved that  Luttrell  was  duly  elected  to  repre- 
sent the  county  of  Middlesex  in  Parliament. 
The  wave  of  indignation  which  passed  through 
England  at  the  time  of  the  "  General  Warrants  " 
in  1763  was  not  a  circumstance  to  the  storm 
which  followed  the  virtual  denial  by  the  House  of 
Commons  of  the  right  of  electors  to  choose  their 
own  representative.  It  was  felt  that  if  this  action 
should  be  allowed  to  pass  unnoticed,  it  would 
form  a  precedent  for  the  House  of  Commons  to 
allow  the  seating  of  only  such  representatives  of 
the  people  as  were  satisfactory  to  that  body. 

1 06 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

The  press  and  the  pamphleteers  drew  a  par- 
allel between  the  American  Colonists,  who  were 
unrepresented,  and  the  electors  of  England,  who 
thus  might  be  represented  only  by  those  pleasing 
to  the  Administration,  and  the  cry  of  "  Wilkes 
and  Liberty  "  resounded  through  England. 

Numerous  engraved  portraits  of  Wilkes  ap- 
peared on  sale  ;  the  cartoonists  rallied  in  his  be- 
half, the  medallists  found  him  a  profitable  sub- 
ject for  their  dies,  and  the  potters  modelled 
him  in  their  clay.  Of  all  the  reminders  of  the 
days  when  the  cry  of  "Wilkes  and  Liberty  " 
was  resounding  through  Great  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica, possibly  none  is  more  interesting  than  the 
Chelsea-Derby  statuette,  an  engraving  of  which 
ends  this  chapter.  In  this  statuette  Duesbury 
pictured  Wilkes  as  the  gallant  gentleman  that 
he  was,  leaning  pen  in  hand  upon  a  pedestal 
upon  the  top  of  which  the  "  Magna  Charta  " 
and  "Bill  of  Rights  "  rested.  In  the  foreground 
a  lusty  babe  upholding  the  Liberty  Cap  fittingly 
personified  the  Liberty  of  the  People,  with  the 
defense  of  which  Wilkes  was  so  closely  identi- 
fied, while  Constitutional  Government  was  rep- 
resented by  the  volume  labelled  "  Locke  on  Gov- 


ernment.'1 


Attempts  were  made  by  Lord  Chatham  and 
others  to  revoke  the  expulsion  of  Wilkes.  Tak- 
ing their  cue  from  a  custom  then  well  established 

107 


THE   BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

in  the  American  Colonies,  town  meetings  were 
held  throughout  England,  and  demanded  a  Dis- 
solution of  Parliament.  The  Lord  Mayor  and 
Aldermen  of  London,  in  person  presented  to 
the  King  a  protest  which  declared  "  that  the 
majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  had  done  a 
deed  more  ruinous  in  its  consequences  than  the 
levying  of  ship  money  by  Charles  the  First  and 
the  dispensing  power  of  James  the  Second." 

In  the  mean  time  Wilkes  was  faring  sump- 
tuously in  prison.  Gifts  of  money  and  luxuries 
were  showered  upon  him  from  all  quarters  of 
Great  Britain  and  America.  The  leaders  of  the 
Whig  party  called  on  him  and  their  ladies  held 
receptions  in  his  quarters.  The  press  noted: 
"  The  ladies,  if  possible,  exceed  the  men  in  their 
marks  of  respect  for  Mr.  Wilkes;  and  it  is  com- 
mon enough  to  see  them  deck  their  children 
with  garlands  composed  of  laurel  and  ribbands  of 
blue,  whilst  infants,  just  taught  to  articulate 
words,  may  be  heard  in  every  corner  prattling 
of  'Wilkes  and  Liberty.' '  A  Society  composed 
of  the  "Supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights"  was 
formed  in  1 769  for  the  purpose  of  liquidating  the 
debts  of  Wilkes,  which  had  been  created  partly 
by  his  own  extravagance,  and  partly  by  endorse- 
ment of  the  notes  of  friends.  Nearly  ^£20,000 
was  raised  in  this  way,  contributions  being  for- 
warded from  all  parts  of  the  British  dominions. 

108 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

With  a  view  of  demonstrating  the  bond  of 
sympathy  existing  between  the  large  number  of 
Englishmen  who  idolized  Wilkes  as  the  defender 
of  their  constitutional  rights  and  those  in  Amer- 
ica who  were  striving  to  maintain  the  freedom 
of  government  accorded  by  the  charters,  the  fol- 
lowing article  is  reprinted  from  the  London 
Chronicle  of  June  28th—  3Oth,  1770: 

"  The  following  is  a  genuine  copy  of  a  let- 
ter sent  by  a  Committee  of  the  Supporters  of 
the  Bill  of  Rights  to  the  Honourable  the  Com- 
mons House  of  Assembly  of  South  Carolina,  in 
answer  to  the  letter  from  the  Assembly  of  South 
Carolina,  (containing  a  subscription  to  the  Soci- 
ety of  fifteen  hundred  pounds  sterling),  which 
was  some  time  since  published  in  this  paper. 
The  noble  spirit  of  universal  liberty  and  benev- 
olence, which  breathes  throughout  this  epistle, 
must,  we  suppose,  make  it  affecting  to  every 
son  of  freedom,  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 

'  To  the  Honourable  the  COMMONS  HOUSE  OF  AS- 
SEMBLY of  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

Gentlemen, 

1  We  are  directed  by  the  Society,  Supporters 
'  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  to  transmit  to  you  their 
'  thanks  for  the  very  honourable  testimony  you 
'  have  at  once  given  of  your  own  sentiments,  and 
'of  your  approbation  of  their  conduct. 

109 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

'  The  same  spirit  of  union  and  mutual  as- 

*  sistance,  which   dictated  your  vote,  in  our  fa- 
'  vour,  animates   this   Society.     We   shall   ever 
'  consider   the  rights  of  all  our  fellow  subjects 
'  throughout    the  British    Empire,  in   England, 
'  Scotland,   Ireland,  and   America,  as  stones  of 
'  one  arch  on  which  the  happiness  and  security 
'  of  the  whole  are  founded.     Such  would  have 
'  been  our  principle  of  action  if  the  system  of 
'  Despotism,  which  has  been  adopted,  had  been 
'  more    artfully  conducted ;   and  we   should   as 

*  readily  have  associated  in  the  defence  of  your 
'  rights  as  our  own,   had  they  been  separately 
'  attacked. 

'  But  Providence  has  mercifully  allotted  to 
'  depraved  hearts  weak  understandings :  The  at- 
'  tack  has  been  made  by  the  same  man,  at  the 
'  same  time,  on  both  together,  and  will  serve 
'  only  to  draw  us  closer  together  in  one  great 
'  band  of  mutual  friendship  and  support. 

'  Whilst  the  Norman  troops  of  the  first  Wil- 
'  Ham  kept  the  English  in  subjection,  his  Eng- 
'lish  soldiers  were  employed  to  secure  the  obe- 
'  dience  of  the  Normans.  This  management  has 
'  been  too  often  repeated  now  to  succeed. 

'  There  was  a  time  when  Scotland,  though 
'  then  a  separate  and  divided  nation,  could  avoid 
'  the  snare,  and  refused,  even  under  their  own 
'  Stuarts,  to  enslave  their  ancient  enemies.  The 


DISAPPROVAL  OF  THE   COLONIAL  POLICY 

'  chains  which  England  and  Scotland  disdained 
'  to  forge  for  each  other,  England  and  America 
'  shall  never  consent  to  furnish. 

'  Property  is  the  natural  right  of  mankind  ; 
'  the  connexion  between  taxation  and  representa- 

*  tion  is  its  necessary  consequence.     This  con- 
'  nexion  is  now  broken,  and  taxes  are  attempted 
'  to  be  levied  both  on  England  and  America  by 

*  men  who  are  not  their  respective  representa- 
'  tives.     Our  cause  is  one — our  enemies  are  the 
'  same.     We  trust  our  constancy  and  conduct  will 
'  not  differ.     Demands  which  are  made  without 
'  authority  should  be  heard  without  obedience. 

'In  this,  and  in  every  other  constitutional 
'  struggle  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  we  wish 
'  to  be  united  with  you  ;  and  are  as  ready  to  give 
'  as  to  receive  assistance. 

'  We  desire  you,  Gentlemen,  to  be  persuaded, 
'that  under  all  our  domestic  grievances  and  ap- 
'  prehensions,  the  freedom  of  America  is  our 
'  particular  attention  ;  and  these  your  public  act 
'  and  solemn  engagement  afford  us  a  pleasing 
'  presage,  and  confirm  our  hopes,  that  when  lux- 
'  ury,  misrule  and  corruption  shall  at  length,  in 

*  spite  of  all  resistance,  have  destroyed  this  noble 
'  constitution  here,  our   posterity  will  not,  like 
'  your  gallant  ancestors,  be  driven  to  an  inhos- 
'  pitable  shore,  but  will   find  a  welcome  refuge, 
'  where  they  may  still  enjoy  the  rights  of  Eng- 


THE    BOSTON   PORT    BILL 

lishmen  amongst  their  fellow  subjects,  the  de- 
scendants and  brothers  of  Englishmen. 
'  We  are,  Gentlemen, 

'  With  the  greatest  respect, 

*  Your  most  obedient  servants  and 

'  Affectionate  fellow-subjects, 
'  Signed     John  Glynn,  Chairman. 

'  Richard  Oliver,        )  ^ 

f  T  i      ^          .  >•  Treasurers. 

*  John  Trevamon,       ) 

*  Robert  Bernard, 


'  Joseph  Mawbey, 
'  James  Townsend, 
'  John  Sawbridge, 


>-  Committee.' 


The  struggles  of  Wilkes  excited  no  less  in- 
terest in  America  than  in  England.  His  success 
created  enthusiasm,  and  his  misfortunes  deep- 
ened the  indignation  against  the  Ministry.  The 
symbol  45  was  freely  used  in  public  decoration 
(see  pages  39,  114,  162).  Few  public  functions 
broke  up  without  the  toasting  of  his  name.  His 
portraits  were  engraved,  and  his  name  was  con- 
sidered one  to  conjure  with.  The  advertisement 
for  "  Bickerstaff 's  Boston  Almanack  "  in  the  fall 
of  1768  announced  that  it  was  embellished  with 
a  portrait  of  "JOHN  WILKES,  The  Celebrated 
PATRON  of  LIBERTY/'  Paul  Revere,  en- 
graver, silversmith  and  patriot,  in  executing  an  or- 
der given  by  fifteen  Sons  of  Liberty,  in  Boston,  for 
a  silver  punch  bowl  dedicated  "  To  the  Memory 


DISAPPROVAL   OF   THE    COLONIAL   POLICY 

of  the  glorious  NINETY-TWO  Members  of  the  Honbl 
Houfe  of  Reprefentatives  of  the  MafTachusetts-Bay, 
who,  undaunted  by  the  infolent  Menaces  of  Villains 
in  Power,  from  a  jirict  Regard  to  Confcience  and 
the  LIBERTIES  of  their  Conftituents,  on  the  joth  of 
"June  Ij68,  Voted  NOT  TO  RESCIND,"  ornamented 
it  with  a  crude  design  consisting  of  a  wreath 
surmounted  by  a  Liberty  Cap  encircling  the 
symbol  "No.  45,"  the  legend  "Wilkes  &  Lib- 
erty," and  a  torn  parchment  marked  "  Generall 
Warrants,"  and  enflanked  with  two  flags  labelled 
"Magna  Charta  "  and  "Bill  of  Rights."  This 
device  in  a  highly  refined  form  encircles  the 
portrait  of  Wilkes  with  which  this  chapter 
ends. 

Through  letters  from  America  which  ap- 
peared in  their  press,  the  English  people  were 
informed  that  Americans  looked  upon  the  cause 
of  Wilkes  as  their  own.  The  following  account 
of  one  of  the  demonstrations  in  Wilkes'  honour, 
which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  August 
I3th-i6th,  1768,  may  be  considered  as  afair  de- 
scription of  numerous  similar  gatherings  held  in 
Wilkes'  honour  in  this  country. 

"  New- London,  "June  1 2.  We  hear  from 
Norwich,  that  last  Tuesday  a  number  of  the 
principal  Gentlemen  of  that  town,  had  an  enter- 
tainment at  Mr.  Peck's  Tavern,  adjoining  the 
Liberty-Tree,  on  account  of  Mr.  Wilkes's  be- 
in 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

ing  chosen  a  Member  of  Parliament.  All  the  fur- 
niture of  the  table,  as  dishes,  plates,  bowls,  &c. 
were  marked  with  Number  45.  A  variety  of 
healths  were  drank,  among  which  were  that  of 
the  King,  the  Queen,  Mr.  Wilkes,  &c. — The 
Tree  of  Liberty,  we  hear,  is  decorated  with  num- 
ber 45,  Wilkes  and  Liberty." 

In  1771  Wilkes  was  elected  one  of  the 
Sheriffs  of  London.  In  the  same  year  he  was 
bitterly  assailed  by  a  former  zealous  supporter, 
the  Rev.  John  Home  [Tooke.]  Among  other 
misrepresentations  made  in  this  controversy  was 
the  one  that  "  Wilkes  always  hated  the  Ameri- 
cans and  was  a  declared  foe  of  their  liberties." 

Wilkes  replied  in  a  lengthy  letter  which  ap- 
peared in  the  London  Chronicle  of  June  i  3th- 1 5th, 
1771,  and  in  refutation  of  this  special  charge, 
quoted  (writing  over  them  the  word  "COPY") 
the  following  letters  written  by  him  while  in 
prison  "  as  giving  to  the  world  my  opinion  of  the 
American  contest." 

King's  Bench  Prison, 

July  19,  1768. 
GENTLEMEN, 

I  Am  extremely  honoured  by  your  Letter, 
and  the  valuable  present,  which  accompanied  it. 
Nothing  cou'd  give  me  more  satisfaction  than 
to  find  the  true  spirit  of  Liberty  so  generally 
diffused  through  the  most  remote  parts  of  the 

114 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

British  Monarchy.  I  thank  you  very  heartily 
for  the  generous  and  rational  entertainment  of 
the  Farmer 's  Letters ,  in  which  the  cause  of  free- 
dom is  perfectly  understood,  and  ably  defended. 

As  a  Member  of  the  Legislature,  I  shall  al- 
ways give  a  particular  attention  to  whatever  re- 
spects the  interests  of  America  y  'which  I  believe 
to  be  immediately  connected  with,  and  of  essential 
moment  to  our  parent  country,  and  the  common  wel- 
fare of  this  great  political  system.  After  the  first 
claims  of  duty  to  England,  and  of  gratitude  to 
the  County  of  Middlesex,  none  shall  engage  me 
more  than  the  affairs  of  our  Colonies,  which  I 
consider  as  the  propugnacula  imperii,  and  I  know 
how  much  of  our  strength  and  weight  we  owe 
to,  and  derive  from  them. 

I  will  ever,  Gentlemen,  AVOW  MYSELF  A 
FRIEND  TO  UNIVERSAL  LIBERTY.  I  hope  free- 
dom will  ever  flourish  under  your  hemisphere  as  well 
as  our's;  and  I  doubt  not,  from  your  spirit  and 
firmness,  that  you  will  be  careful  to  transmit  to 
your  posterity  the  invaluable  rights  and  fran- 
chises, which  you  received  from  your  ancestors. 
Liberty  I  consider  as  the  birthright  of  every  sub- 
ject of  the  British  Empire,  and  I  hold  Magna 
Charta  to  be  in  as  full  force  in  America  as  in 
Europe.  I  hope  that  these  truths  will  become 
generally  known  and  acknowledged  through  the 
wide  extended  dominions  of  our  Sovereign,  and 

"5 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

that  a  real  union  of  the  whole  will  prevail  to  save 
the  whole,  and  to  guard  the  public  Liberty,  if  in- 
vaded by  despotic  Ministers,  in  the  most  remote 
equally  as  in  the  central  parts  of  this  vast  Em- 
pire. 

It  shall  be  the  study  of  my  life,  Gentlemen, 
to  give  you  and  all  my  fellow-subjects  the  clear- 
est proofs  that  I  have  at  heart  the  welfare  and 
prosperity  of  every  part  of  this  great  Monarchy. 
The  only  ambition  I  feel  is  to  distinguish  myself 
as  a  Friend  of  the  rights  of  Mankind,  both  religious 
and  civil,  as  a  Man  zealous  for  the  preservation 
of  this  Constitution  and  our  Sovereign,  WITH  ALL 

OUR     LAWS  AND     NATIVE     LIBERTIES  THAT   ASK 

NOT  HIS  LEAVE,  if  I  may  use  the  expression  of 
Milton.  My  conduct  shall  be  steady  and  uni- 
form, directed  in  every  point  by  an  obedience  to 
the  LAWS,  and  a  reverence  to  the  Constitution. 

The  favourable  opinion,  which  you  are 
pleased  to  express  of  me,  is  a  great  encourage- 
ment and  a  noble  reward  of  my  efforts  in  the 
service  of  this  Kingdom.  I  hope  to  shew  my- 
self not  quite  unworthy  of  an  honour,  which  I 
feel  as  I  ought.  I  am,  with  great  regard, 
Gentlemen,  your  obliged, 

and  faithful,  humble  servant, 

John  Wilkes. 

To  the  Gentlemen  of  the   Committee  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  in  the  Town  of  Boston. 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

King's  Bench  Prison, 

March  j>0,  Ij6y. 
GENTLEMEN, 

I  Should  sooner  have  acknowledged  the  very 
great  honour  of  the  letter  Captain  Bruce  deliv- 
ered to  me,  but  from  a  real  tenderness  for  you, 
and  the  other  friends  of  Liberty  in  America,  still 
more  than  from  my  own  important  concerns.  I 
did  hope  that  the  spirit  of  persecution,  which  had 
gone  forth  against  you,  would  have  abated,  and 
that  I  should  have  had  it  in  my  power  to  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  recovery  of  your  rights.  If  I 
had  been  permitted  to  take  my  seat  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  I  should  have  been  eager  to  move 
the  repeal  of  the  late  Act,  which  lays  the  new 
duties  on  paper,  paint,  and  other  articles.  I  would 
have  done  this  from  the  full  persuasion  not  only 
of  that  Act's  being  highly  impolitic  and  inex- 
pedient, but,  in  my  idea,  likewise  absolutely  un- 
just and  unconstitutional,  a  direct  violation  of  the 
great  fundamental  principles  of  British  Liberty. 
The  present  session  has  been  in  many  instances 
most  unfavourable  to  public  Liberty,  but  I  hope 
that  the  next,  and  a  more  upright  Administra- 
tion, will  restore  all  the  subjects  of  the  British 
Empire  to  the  possession  of  their  rights,  and  I 
wish  to  enjoy  the  satisfaction  of  contributing  to 
so  noble  a  work. 

I  have  read  with  grief  and  indignation  the 
117 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


proceedings  of  the  Ministry  with  regard  to  the 
troops  ordered  to  Boston,  as  if  it  were  the  cap- 
ital of  a  province  belonging  to  our  enemies,  or 
in  the  possession  of  rebels.  Asiatic  despotism  does 
not  present  a  picture  more  odious  in  the  eye  of 
humanity  than  the  sanctuary  of  justice  and  law 
turned  into  a  main  guard.  I  admire  exceedingly 
your  prudence  and  temper  on  so  intricate  an  oc- 
casion, maintaining  at  the  same  time  your  own 
dignity  and  the  true  spirit  of  Liberty.  By  this 
wise  and  excellent  conduct  you  have  disappointed 
your  enemies,  and  convinced  your  friends  that 
an  entire  reliance  is  to  be  had  on  the  Supporters 
of  Freedom  at  Boston  in  every  occurrence,  how- 
ever delicate  or  dangerous.  Your  moderation 
prevented  the  effusion  of  blood,  which  we  have 
seen  by  the  military  in  St.  George's-Fields  on 
the  most  frivolous  pretext,  and  in  the  most  in- 
human way. 

I  submit  to  you,  Gentlemen,  the  propriety  of 
a  publication  of  any  letters,  which  may  pass  be- 
tween us.  You  are  the  true  judges  of  what  re- 
spects the  new  world.  Perhaps  while  I  am  doomed 
to  this  prison,  unfair  advantages  might  be  taken 
here  against  me,  which  I  should  find  it  difficult 
to  overcome.  I  leave  however  the  whole  to  your 
mature  consideration,  with  the  truest  assurances 
that  in  whatever  way  I  can  serve  the  generous  cause 
of  Liberty  I  will  be  active  and  zealous.  You  will 

118 


DISAPPROVAL   OF  THE    COLONIAL   POLICY 

always  oblige  me  by  pointing  out  the  particulars 
respecting  yourselves. 

I  am,  Gentlemen,  with  Truth  and  Regard, 
your  affectionate,  and  faithful,  humble  Ser- 
vant, 

John  Wilkes. 

To  the   Gentlemen  of  the  Committee  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  in  the  Town  of  Boston. 

During  his  term  as  Sheriff,  Wilkes  availed  him- 
self of  his  official  position  in  again  asserting  and 
defending  the  Liberty  of  the  Press.  The  news 
sheets  little  by  little  were  commencing  to  publish 
the  substance  of  the  debates  which  took  place  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  This  was  done  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  a  resolution  of  that  body  hold- 
ing that  it  was  a  breach  of  privilege  to  print  "any 
account  of  the  debates  or  other  proceedings  of  this 
House  ....  and  that  this  House  will  proceed 
with  the  utmost  severity  against  such  offenders." 

The  House  of  Commons  decided  to  enforce 
this,  and  two  offending  printers  R.  Thompson, 
the  printer  of  the  Gazefeer,  and  John  Wheble, 
the  printer  of  the  Middlesex  Journa/,were  ordered 
before  it  for  trial. 

Wilkes  persuaded  his  friends,  the  Lord  Mayor, 
and  Alderman  Oliver,  to  thwart  the  enforcement 
of  this  order  in  the  City  of  London.  The  two 
printers  failed  to  present  themselves  at  the  bar  of 

119 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  House,  and  concealed  themselves  from  the 
law  officers.  At  the  request  of  the  House,  the 
King  issued  a  proclamation  offering  fifty  pounds 
for  the  arrest  of  each  of  the  offending  printers. 
With  a  view  of  securing  the  reward,  a  journey- 
man printer  arrested  Wheble  and  brought  him 
to  the  Guildhall,  for  which  service  Wilkes,  who 
had  been  elected  Alderman  and  was  then  sitting 
as  Magistrate,  promptly  committed  him  for  as- 
sault and  discharged  his  prisoner.  John  Mil- 
ler, the  publisher  of  the  London  Evening  Post,  was 
f  also  arrested  by  an  officer  of  the  Court.  For  this 
act  in  the  performance  of  his  duty,  the  latter  was 
committed  to  jail  by  the  Lord  Mayor  and  Alder- 
men Oliver  and  Wilkes. 

The  House  of  Commons  then  ordered  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  Alderman  Oliver  to  be  impris- 
oned in  the  Tower,  and  Wilkes  to  present  him- 
self before  the  bar  of  the  House.  Though  twice 
ordered  to  appear  Wilkes  each  time  refused,  and 
the  House  not  daring  to  take  further  measures 
against  this  defender  of  the  people,  dropped  the 
matter,  and  made  no  further  attempt  to  prevent 
the  publishing  of  the  news  of  their  proceedings. 
While  serving  as  Alderman  of  the  City  of  Lon- 
don, Wilkes,  in  1774,  was  elected  Mayor  of  that 
city,  an  office  at  the  time  more  coveted  and  car- 
rying with  it  greater  honour  and  dignity  than  any 
elective  position  in  England.  In  the  same  year, 


DISAPPROVAL  OF   THE   COLONIAL   POLICY 

he  was  returned  to  Parliament  for  the  fifth  time, 
by  the  Freeholders  of  Middlesex,  and  upon  tak- 
ing his  seat,  actively  opposed  the  measures  which 
were  being  enacted  against  the  people  of  Boston 
and  Massachusetts-Bay.  Such  was  Wilkes'  pop- 
ularity in  America  that  many  in  England  advo- 
cated, as  a  solution  of  American  troubles,  his  ap- 
pointment as  Governor  of  Massachusetts-Bay. 

Evidence  that  the  two  cartoons*  which  form 
the  subject  of  this  chapter  had  free  circulation  in 
London  is  furnished  by  the  following  item,which 
appeared  under  the  heading  of  London  News  in 
the  Kentish  Gazette  of  May  23rd,  1775.  "An 
American  Officer  appeared  at  the  Masquerade  the 
other  night,  tarred  and  feathered,  just  as  he  is  rep- 
resented in  the  print  shops,  to  the  no  small  di- 
version of  the  company." 

Rarely  interesting  as  are  these  cartoons  in  re- 
calling an  almost  forgotten  incident  in  our 
country's  history,  they  have  a  yet  greater  value 
in  that  they  evidence  the  local  appreciation  of 
the  justice  of  the  Colonies'  refusal  to  acquiesce 
in  the  attempt  of  the  administration  to  force  the 

*  Proof  of  their  popularity  among  the  London  public,  is  also  evinced  by 
the  fact  that  on  June  *nd,  1775,  Carington  Bowles  used  the  same  derisive 
wording  and  verses,  which  appeared  on  the  print  last  described,  as  the 
legend  upon  a  folio  line  engraving,  in  which  Malcomb  was  pictured  as 
being  lowered  by  ropes  from  the  window  of  his  house  into  a  cart,  prepara- 
tory to  receiving  his  "American  suit"  from  the  irate  Bostonians.  The 
title  of  this  line  engraving  differed  from  that  of  the  mezzotint  cartoon  only 
in  the  addition  of  the  words  "in  NORTH  AMERICA"  after  BOSTON. 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

tea  down  the  throat  of  America.  This  is  dem- 
onstrated by  the  fact  that  the  account  of  the 
one  droll  incident  that  had  occurred  in  this 
notoriously  brutal  and  inhuman  treatment  ac- 
corded a  King's  Excise-man  at  Boston,  was  thus 
utilized  for  commercial  purposes  by  two  of  the 
most  consequential  British  print-sellers,  to  deline- 
ate humourously  and  with  obvious  moral  the  de- 
termination expressed  by  the  people  of  America 
to  resent  strongly  an  insidious  attack  on  their 
liberty.  The  impression  the  treatment  of  Mai- 
comb  made  upon  the  Crown  will  be  discussed 
in  the  following  chapter. 


Ill 

BRITISH  INDIGNATION  AT  THE 

PUNISHMENT   OF 

BOSTON 


III 

BRITISH    INDIGNATION   AT    THE    PUNISHMENT 
OF    BOSTON 

HEN  the  first  reports  of  the 
apparently  wanton  destruction 
of  the  tea  at  Boston  reached 
England  late  in  January,  1 774, 
it  was  the  almost  universal  ver- 
dict of  the  English  people  that 
Boston  must  be  punished,  and  the  supremacy  of 
the  King  and  Parliament  in  America  upheld. 
On  the  1 4th  of  March,  1774,  Lord  North,  the 
Prime  Minister,  acting  under  instructions  from 
the  Ministry,  presented  to  the  House  of  Com- 

1*5 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

mons  a  Bill  entitled  "  An  ACT  to  discontinue, 
in  such  manner,  and  for  such  time  as  are  therein 
mentioned,  the  landing  and  discharging,*  lading  or 
shipping  of  goods,  wares,  and  merchandize,  at  the 
town,  and  within  the  harbour  of  Boston,  in  the  Pro- 
vince of  Massachusetts-Bay,  in  North- America" 

This  Act  was  destined  to  go  down  to  his- 
tory under  the  name  of  The  BOSTON  PORT  BILL, 
and  finally  brought  to  an  issue  the  vital  question 
which  had  so  long  agitated  the  people  of  Eng- 
land and  America.  It  ordained  that  "  from  and 
after  the  FIRST  DAY  OF  JUNE,  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  seventy-four,  it  shall  not  be  lawful 
for  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever  to  lade  or 
put,  or  cause  or  procure  to  be  laden  or  put,  off 
or  from  any  quay,  wharf,  or  other  place,  within 
the  said  town  of  Boston,  or  in  or  upon  any  part 
of  the  shore  of  the  bay,  commonly  called  the 
harbour  of  Boston,  between  a  certain  headland 
or  point  called  NAHANT  POINT,  on  the  Eastern 
side  of  the  entrance  into  the  said  bay,  and  a  cer- 
tain other  headland  or  point  called  ALDERTON 
POINT,  on  the  Western  side  of  the  entrance  into 
the  said  bay,  or  in  or  upon  any  island,  creek, 
landing-place,  bank,  or  other  place,  within  the 
said  bay  or  headlands,  into  any  ship,  vessel,  light- 
er, boat,  or  bottom,  any  goods,  wares,  or  mer- 
chandize whatsoever,  to  be  transported  or  carried 
into  any  other  country,  province,  or  place  what- 

126 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

soever,  or  into  any  other  part  of  the  said  pro- 
vince of  the  Massachusetts-Bay,  in  New  Eng- 
land; or  to  take  up,  discharge,  or  lay  on  land, 
or  cause  or  procure  to  be  taken  up,  discharged, 
or  laid  on  land,  within  the  said  town,  or  in  or 
upon  any  of  the  places  aforesaid,  out  of  any  boat, 
lighter,  ship,  vessel,  or  bottom,  any  goods,  wares, 
or  merchandize,  whatsoever,  to  be  brought  from 
any  other  country,  province  or  place,  or  any  other 
part  of  the  said  province  of  the  Massachusetts- 
Bay,  in  New-England,  upon  pain  of  the  forfeit- 
ure of  the  said  goods,  wares,  and  merchandize, 
and  of  the  said  boat,  lighter,  ship,  vessel,  or  other 
bottom  into  which  the  same  shall  be  put,  or  out 
of  which  the  same  shall  be  taken,  and  of  the 
guns,  ammunition,  tackle,  furniture,  and  stores, 
in  or  belonging  to  the  same:  And  if  any  such 
goods,  wares,  or  merchandize,  shall,  within  the 
said  town,  or  in  any  of  the  places  aforesaid,  be 
laden  or  taken  in  from  the  shore  into  any  barge, 
hoy,  lighter,  wherry,  or  boat,  to  be  carried  on 
board  any  ship  or  vessel  outward  bound  to  any 
other  country  or  province,  or  other  part  of  the 
said  province  of  the  Massachusetts-Bay,  in  New- 
England,  or  be  laden  or  taken  into  such  barge, 
hoy,  lighter,  wherry,  or  boat,  from  or  out  of  any 
ship  or  vessel  coming  in  and  arriving  from  any 
other  country  or  province,  or  other  part  of  the 
said  province  of  the  Massachusetts-Bay,  in  New- 

127 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

England,  such  barge,  hoy,  lighter,  wherry,  or 
boat  shall  be  forfeited  and  lost." 

While  the  Act  aimed  to  destroy  the  com- 
merce from  which  the  Bostonians  derived  their 
livelihood,  the  stipulation  was  made  that  it 
should  not  extend  "  to  any  fuel  or  victual  brought 
coastwise  from  any  part  of  the  continentof  Amer- 
ica, for  the  necessary  use  and  sustenance  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  said  town  of  Boston,  provided 
the  vessel  wherein  the  same  are  to  be  carried 
shall  be  duly  furnished  with  a  cocket  and  let- 
pass,  after  having  been  duly  searched  by  the 
proper  officers  of  his  Majesty's  customs  at  Mar- 
blehead,  in  the  port  of  Salem,  in  the  said  pro- 
vince of  Massachusetts-Bay  ;  and  that  some  offi- 
cer of  his  Majesty's  customs  be  also  there  put  on 
board  the  said  vessel,  who  is  hereby  authorized 
to  go  on  board,  and  proceed  with  the  said  ves- 
sel, together  with  a  sufficient  number  of  persons, 
properly  armed  for  his  defence,  to  the  said  town 
or  harbour  of  Boston. 

The  Bill  was  to  remain  in  force  until  it 
should  appear  to  the  King  that  "  peace  and  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  shall  be  so  far  restored  in  the 
said  town  of  Boston  that  the  trade  of  Great 
Britain  may  be  safely  carried  on  there  and  his 
Majesty's  customs  duly  collected"  and  "that 
full  satisfaction  hath  been  made  by  or  on  behalf 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  town  of  Boston  to 


128 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

the  united  company  of  merchants  of  England 
trading  to  the  East  Indies,  for  the  damage  sus- 
tained by  the  said  company  by  the  destruction 
of  their  goods  sent  to  the  said  town  of  Boston, 
on  board  certain  ships  or  vessels  as  aforesaid; 
and  until  it  shall  be  certified  to  his  Majesty,  in 
Council,  by  the  Governor,  or  Lieutenant  Gov- 
ernor, of  the  said  province,  that  reasonable  sat- 
isfaction hath  been  made  to  the  officers  of  his 
Majesty's  revenue,  and  others,  who  suffered  by 
the  riots  and  insurrections  above-mentioned,  in 
the  months  of  November  and  December,  in  the 
year  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy- 
three,  and  in  the  month  of  January,  in  the 
year  of  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy- 
four." 

The  reasons  given  for  the  necessity  of  this 
action  were  that  "dangerous  commotions  and 
insurrections  have  been  fomented  and  raised  in 
the  town  of  Boston,  in  the  province  of  Massa- 
chusetts-Bay, in  New-England,  by  divers  ill- 
affected  persons,  to  the  subversion  of  his  Majes- 
ty's government,  and  to  the  utter  destruction  of 
the  public  peace,  and  good  order  of  the  said 
town;  in  which  commotions  and  insurrections 
certain  valuable  cargoes  of  teas,  being  the  prop- 
erty of  the  East-India  company,  and  on  board 
certain  vessels  lying  within  the  bay  or  harbour 
of  Boston,  were  seized  and  destroyed :  And 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

whereas,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  said 
town  and  harbour,  the  commerce  of  his  Majes- 
ty's subjects  cannot  be  safely  carried  on  there, 
nor  the  customs  payable  to  his  Majesty  duly  col- 
lected; and  it  is  therefore  expedient  that  the 
officers  of  his  Majesty's  customs  should  be  forth- 
with removed  from  the  said  town." 

Eight  days  after  the  reading  of  this  Bill  there 
was  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  a  peti- 
tion which  was  immediately  published  in  the 
press  under  the  title  of  "The  humble  petition 
of  several  NATIVES  and  INHABITANTS  of  NORTH 
AMERICA,"  then  in  London.  Drawn  up  in 
terms  of  the  greatest  loyalty  and  respect  it  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  measures  against 
Boston  were  violating  what  was  considered  to 
be  "an  inviolable  rule  of  natural  justice,  that  no 
man  should  be  condemned  unheard,  and  that 
according  to  law  no  person  or  persons  can  be 
judged  without  being  called  upon  to  answer, 
and  being  permitted  to  hear  the  evidence  against 
them  and  to  make  their  defence." 

The  petition  further  stated  that  if  the  people 
of  Boston  were  punished  unheard,  that  under 
such  a  precedent  "no  man  or  body  of  men  in 
America  could  enjoy  a  moment's  security:  For 
if  judgment  be  immediately  to  follow  an  accu- 
sation against  the  people  of  America,  supported 
even  by  persons  notoriously  at  enmity  with  them, 

130 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

the  accused  unacquainted  with  the  charge,  and 
from  the  nature  of  the  situation  utterly  incapable 
of  answering  and  defending  themselves,  every 
fence  against  false  accusation  would  be  pulled 
down,  justice  will  be  no  longer  their  shield,  nor 
innocence  an  exemption  from  punishment." 

It  maintained  that  "law  in  America  minis- 
ters redress  for  any  injury  sustained  there"  and 
cited  the  fair  trial  and  favourable  verdict  ac- 
corded to  Captain  Preston  and  his  soldiers  for 
their  part  in  the  "Boston  Massacre."  The  peti- 
tion stated  in  addition  that  there  had  been  no  in- 
stance in  which  Parliament  had  ever  attempted  to 
punish  a  city  for  a  civil  offence,  without  redress 
having  first  been  sought  at  common  law,  and 
referred  to  certain  historic  cases  of  Parliament- 
ary punishment  of  municipalities,  notably  that 
of  Edinburgh  in  which  the  punishment  was  not 
accorded  until  after  the  city  had  been  heard  in 
its  defence.  Its  closing  portions  contained  the 
statement  that  "the  petitioners  thought  them- 
selves bound  to  declare  that  they  apprehend  such 
a  proceeding  of  excessive  rigour  and  injustice 
will  sink  deep  in  the  minds  of  their  country- 
men, and  tend  to  alienate  their  affection  from 
this  country." 

This  petition  in  no  way  attempted  to  excuse 
the  destruction  of  property  in  Boston;  it  only 
protested  against  the  injustice  of  punishing  a  city 

131 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

without  allowing  it  to  be  heard  in  its  own  de- 
fence. It  was  given  wide  circulation  in  the  press, 
and  its  arguments  formed  the  basis  of  numerous 
editorial  comments  and  "Letters  to  the  Printer'* 
— for  such  summary  methods  of  punishment  as 
proposed  by  the  new  Bill  were  at  variance  with 
the  British  people's  sense  of  justice.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  debates  upon  the  Bill  itself  were 
fully  reported  in  the  newspapers,  for  the  victo- 
ries won  by  Wilkes  in  behalf  of  the  liberty  of 
the  press,  were  now  bearing  fruit.  Such  was 
considered  the  enormity  of  the  offence  commit- 
ted by  Boston,  that  sentiment  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  divided  only  as  to  the  form  of 
punishment  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  Bostonians, 
for  of  their  guilt  there  was,  at  the  time,  appar- 
ently no  question. 

The  opponents  of  the  Bill  made  every  en- 
deavour to  have  the  punishment  to  be  meted 
out  to  the  Bostonians  take  the  form  of  a  fine  of 
"^"15,000,  which  would  make  amends  to  the 
East-India  Company,  and  in  some  measure  be 
a  relief  to  the  custom  house  officer  [Malcomb] 
who  has  been  tarred  and  feathered."  Its  sup- 
porters advanced  among  other  arguments  in  its 
behalf  "that  the  Americans  were  a  strange  set 
of  people,  and  that  it  was  in  vain  to  expect  any 
degree  of  reasoning  from  them ;  that  instead  of 
[proving]  their  claim  by  argument,  they  always 

13* 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

chose  to  decide  the  matter  by  tarring  and  feath- 
ering, that  the  method  now  proposed  in  the  bill 
would  become  more  a  punishment  by  their  re- 
fusal than  by  their  compliance ;  that  the  Ameri- 
cans alone  were  the  persons  by  whose  behaviour 
the  lenity  or  severity  of  the  measure  was  to 
be  proved." 

The  sponsor  of  the  bill,  Lord  North,  in  urg- 
ing its  passage,  stated  that  many  years  ago  the 
Bostonians  had  commenced  to  endeavour  to 
throw  off  all  obedience  to  Great  Britain,  and 
that  now  for  the  first  time  Parliament  was  pro- 
ceeding to  punish  them.  In  offering  other  rea- 
sons for  the  necessity  of  the  measure  he  said : 
"I  am  by  no  means  an  enemy  to  lenient  meas- 
ures, but  I  find  that  resolutions  of  censure 
and  warning  will  avail  nothing ;  we  must  there- 
fore proceed  to  some  immediate  remedy;  now 
is  our  time  to  stand  out — to  defy  them ;  to  pro- 
ceed with  firmness  and  without  fear.  That  it 
would  be  enough  to  show  that  Great  Britain 
was  in  earnest.'*  He  predicted  that  no  armed 
force  would  be  necessary  to  put  the  Act  into 
execution,  that  "  four  or  five  frigates  will  do  the 
business"  (see  page  175)  and  expressed  the  belief 
and  hope  that  the  rest  of  the  Colonies  would  see 
the  justice  and  propriety  of  the  punishment  and 
leave  Boston  to  its  fate.  His  argument  ended 
with  the  following  exhortation  to  the  members 

133 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

of  the  House  present :  "  Let  us  continue  to  pro- 
ceed with  firmness,  justice  and  resolution;  which 
if  pursued  will  certainly  produce  that  due  obe- 
dience and  respect  to  the  laws  of  this  country, 
and  the  security  of  the  trade  of  its  people,  which 
I  so  ardently  wish  for."  The  events  of  the  next 
year  proved  how  little  Lord  North  understood 
the  temperament  of  the  people  of  America. 

Another  opponent  of  the  measure  under  dis- 
cussion gave  warning  to  Parliament  that  the  Bill 
in  shutting  off  the  trade  of  Boston  would  in  re- 
ality result  in  the  punishment  of  the  merchants 
and  manufacturers  of  Great  Britain,  whose  trade, 
dependent  largely  upon  the  American  Colonies, 
would  again  be  subject  to  great  curtailment. 

George  Dempster,  a  member  from  Scotland, 
bitterly  assailed  the  proposed  action  of  the  Min- 
istry and  gloried  in  the  fact  that  he  had  assisted 
in  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act,  claiming  that 
the  disorders  in  America  had  arisen  solely  from 
the  attempt  of  Parliament  to  tax  America 
through  the  "  odious  stamp  act/'  He  also  ques- 
tioned the  right  of  Parliament  to  place  in  the 
King's  hand  the  decision  as  to  when  the  Port 
of  Boston  should  be  reinstated  in  its  rights. 
Dempster  made  a  further  plea  for  justice  to  Bos- 
ton, and  declared  that  it  was  beneath  the  dignity 
of  Parliament  to  concern  itself  in  the  disputes 
then  taking  place  between  the  King  and  the 

134 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

Colonies,  for  the  latter  should  be  "  treated  as 
children  and  cherished  and  nourished  and  pro- 
tected." 

Charles  James  Fox  framed  his  attack  on  the 
portion  of  the  Bill  which  "  vested  the  power  to 
restore  the  Port  in  the  Crown  alone,"  and  bitterly 
assailed  its  sponsors  for  providing  that  the  per- 
secution against  the  Bostonians  should  not  cease, 
until  the  King  himself  was  satisfied  that  the 
spirit  of  Boston  was  broken. 

The  closing  scenes  of  the  debate  were  marked 
by  very  great  excitement,  for  Van,  of  the  Ad- 
ministration party,  declared  that  "  The  town  of 
Boston  ought  to  be  knocked  about  their  ears  and 
destroyed,  '  Delenda  est  Carthago/  "  and  voiced 
the  opinion  that  "  you  will  never  meet  with  that 
proper  obedience  to  the  laws  of  this  country  un- 
til you  have  destroyed  that  nest  of  locusts." 

Up  to  this  time  that  stalwart  defender  of  the 
rights  of  the  Colonies,  Col.  Barre,  had  not  op- 
posed the  new  measure,  but  stirred  by  the  words 
of  the  last  speaker,  he  arose  and  denounced  the 
Bill  as  the  first  vengeful  step  which  had  been 
taken.  In  the  closing  portion  of  his  speech 
(which  is  here  reprinted  from  the  press  accounts 
of  the  debate),  Barre  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  punishment  of  Boston  was  only  another 
form  of  the  taxation  which  was  the  cause  of  all 
the  troubles  between  Parliament  and  the  Ameri- 

135 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


can  Colonies.  "  We  ought  to  go  coolly,"  he  said, 
"  to  this  business  and  not  trouble  our  heads  with 
who  passed  or  who  repealed  the  Stamp  Act  or 
other  Taxes.  We  are  to  proceed  rebus  sic  talibus,  I 
hate  the  word  fine ;  it  is  a  Tax,  and  as  long  as  I 
sit  here  among  you  I  will  oppose  the  taxing  of 
America.  This  bill,  I  am  afraid,  draws  in  the  fatal 
doctrine  of  submitting  to  taxation ;  it  is  also  a  doubt 
by  this  bill  whether  the  port  is  to  be  restored  to 
the  full  extent.  Keep  your  hands  out  of  the 
pockets  of  the  Americans  and  they  will  be  obe- 
dient subjects.  I  have  not  a  doubt  but  a  very 
small  part  of  our  strength  will,  at  any  time, 
overpower  them.  I  think  this  bill  a  moderate 
one ;  but  I  argue  that  the  next  proposition  will 
be  a  black  one.  You  have  not  a  loom  or  an 
anvil  but  what  is  stamped  with  America ;  it  is 
the  main  prop  of  your  trade.  Parliament  may 
fancy  that  they  have  rights  in  theory  which  they 
can  never  reduce  to  practice.  America  employs 
all  your  workmen  here ;  nourish  and  protect  it, 
that  they  may  be  supported." 

The  Bill  passed  the  House  of  Commons 
without  division  and  was  sent  to  the  House  of 
Lords,  where  its  passage  was  strenuously  com- 
bated by  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  the  Duke  of 
Richmond,  and  Lord  Camden  and  vigourously 
advocated  by  the  Earl  of  Mansfield,  who  urged 
the  necessity  of  immediate  action,  declaring 

136 


"  The  Americans  will  then  know  that  we  shall 
temporize  no  longer ;  if  it  passes  with  tolerable 
unanimity,  Boston  will  submit,  and  all  will  end 
with  victory  without  carnage." 

The  Bill  again  passed  without  division  and 
received  the  King's  Assent  seventeen  days  after 
its  first  reading  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Public  opinion  in  England,  while  recogniz- 
ing the  necessity  of  Parliamentary  action  against 
the  Bostonians,  placed  its  protest  in  the  press 
against  the  summariness  of  not  allowing  Boston 
to  be  heard  in  its  own  defense.  The  idea  that 
the  Ministry  were  actuated  by  motives  of  re- 
venge rather  than  justice  rapidly  became  wide- 
spread, and  the  Bill  became  a  target  at  which 
the  scribblers  hurled  their  shafts  of  wit  and  sat- 
ire, the  following  examples  of  which  found 
their  way  into  print  almost  immediately  after 
the  Bill  had  received  the  Royal  assent. 

From   the   London  Chronicle,  April  5th-/th, 

*774- 

"A  correspondent   has    sent  a  dialogue,  to 

which  he  says  he  was  an  ear  witness : 

"  Dr.   First. — Pray  how    do    you   cure   the 

toothache  ? 

"  Dr.  Last. — I  always  plucks  'em  out.    Are 

you  a  Doctor  ? 

"  Dr.  First — Yes,  a  political  Physician.    I  am 

a  Member  of  Parliament,  and  of  course,  being 

137 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

one  of  the  great  Council  of  the  Nation,  have  a 
right  to  give  my  opinion  on  all  the  diseases  of 
the  State. 

"Dr.  Last. — Indeed  !  that's  pure.  Pray  Doc- 
tor, if  twenty  or  thirty  riotous  lawless  people 
in  a  town,  consisting  of  between  twenty  and 
thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  were  to  commit  a 
trespass,  what  remedy  would  you  prescribe  ? 

"  Dr.  First. — Oh,  nothing  more  easily  done. 
I  would  beat  the  town  about  their  ears ;  and 
with  fire  and  sword  I  would  exterminate  the 
whole  inhabitants  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Delenda  est  Carthago. 

"  Dr.  Last  and  Dr.  First  together. — Nothing 
like  a  radical  cure:  no,  nothing  like  a  radical 
cure." 

From   the    Kentish  Gazette,  April  6th~9th, 

1774: 

INTELLIGENCE 

"  An  ingenious  writer  in  the  dramatic  walk, 
having  begun  a  tragedy  on  the  present  debates 
with  the  Americans,  which- he  intends  to  name 
*  THE  FALL  OF  BOSTON/  has  given  us  permis- 
sion to  lay  the  following  speech  before  the  pub- 
lic, as  a  specimen  of  the  work. 

ACT  I.     Scene  the  last. 

(Lord  NORTH  solus.} 

WHAT  in  this  piping  time  of  peace,  when  ev'ry 
Wind  conspired  to  swell  my  sails  to  glory, 

138 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

And  guide  my  P — ce  to  arbitrary  rule ; 
When  haughty  Spain's  revengeful  ire  I  sooth'd 
And  even  patriots  (once  my  greatest  dread) 
Had  partly  bow'd  their  stubborn  necks  to  kiss 
The  rod  and  place,  upraised  to  win  them 
To  their  duty — to  be  thus  crost  and  spurn'd 
By  a  few  vagrant  outcasts  from  this  isle, 
O  !  tis  too  much,  come  then,  black  vengeance 
With  thy  deadliest  thought ! — in  either  hand  a 

torch 

Such  as  of  old  great  Erostratus 
Us'd,  when  he  fair  Dian's  temple  flam'd, 
And    since    they   dare  to    urge    their  freedom* s 

strength 

'Gainst  my  commands ,  burn  their  detested  town, 
Their  Temples,  farms,  their  household  Gods,  and  all 
And  when  the  whole  in  piles  of  ashes  lie, 
Rise,  Massachuset,  from  thy  lowest  bed, 
And  in  one  surge  sweep  off  the  dam'd  remains, 
That  not  a  wreck  be  left  for  future  time 
To  mark  the  spot  where  BOSTON  once  had  stood. 

"In  former  cases,  when  a  house  has  been 
pulled  down,  or  a  citizen's  goods  destroyed  by 
riot,  the  American  provincial  Assemblies  have 
been  applied  to,  and  have  paid  'the  damages. 
The  assembly  of  Massachusetts  -  Bay  would 
doubtless  have  paid  for  the  tea,  had  it  been  re- 
quired of  them  in  the  usual  form.  It  is  well 

'39 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

known  that  the  Father  of  this  City,  and  several 
other  gentlemen,  were  willing  to  give  security 
for  the  payment  of  the  tea  on  these  terms.  But 
that  would  have  been  a  trifling  scheme,  by  which 
we  could  hardly  expect  the  pleasure  of  making 
a  single  woman  or  child  shed  a  tear ;  whereas 
the  present  plan  perfectly  agrees  with  [the]  gov- 
ernment's ideas  of  governing  a  distant  colony ;  it 
affords  the  pleasing  prospect  of  starving  at  least 
a  thousand  of  them  to  death,  and  reducing  half 
of  the  remainder  to  beggary ;  to  say  nothing 
of  the  motion  it  must  give  to  the  wheels  of  trade 
on  this  side  of  the  water." 

The  editorial  was  evidently  written  from  Lon- 
don, for  the  reference  to  the  "  Father  of  the 
City,"  alludes  to  the  offer  made  by  Wilkes  to  go 
on  a  bond  for  the  payment  of  the  tea,  provided 
the  Boston  Port  Bill  should  not  be  passed. 

Ten  days  later  the  same  editor  printed  the  fol- 
lowing tribute  to  Lord  North's  motives  in  intro- 
ducing this  act  of  vengeance. 

On  the  Author  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill. 
Fierce  Nimrod  first  the  bloody  chace  began, 
A  mighty  hunter  and  his  prey  was  man 
Our  blust'ring  North  boasts  still  a  fiercer  name ; 
He  marks  a  people  out  as  Royal  game. 

Letters  defending  the  action  of  the  Bostonians 
soon  appeared,  and  advanced  the  argument  that 

140 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

the  Colonials  had  merely  acted  in  defense  of  their 
constitutional  rights  in  preventing  the  landing  of 
the  tea.  No  more 
forcible  arraign- 
ment of  the  injus- 
tice of  the  sum- 
mary punishment 
accorded  to  Boston 
could  have  been 
drawn  up,  than  a 
parallel,  here  repro- 
duced, which  ap- 
peared in  the  col- 
umns of  the  London 
Chronicle  of  April 
9th -i  2th,  1774. 
This  parallel  com- 
pared Parliament's 
proceedings  against 
Edinburgh  thirty- 
seven  years  before, 
and  its  recent  action 
against  Boston,  the 
charge  in  the  for- 
mer case  being  for 
the  wanton  murder 

by  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  of  one  John  Por- 
teous,  the  captain  of  the  City  Guard,  who,  after 
being  condemned  to  death  by  due  process  of  law 


To   the    PR  INTER. 

PROCEEDINGS   AGAINST 
EDINBURGH  BOSTOH 

Began  the  xotb  of 
February,  1737,  and 
ended  the  21  ft  of  June, 
having  continued  near 
four  taonths. 

The  Proved  and 
MagiOratei  of  Edin- 
burgh, the  Judges  of 
Scotland,  and  many 
other  witneflet  exa- 
mined at  the  bar. 

Council  and  evt« 
deoce  for  the  Magjf- 
tratei  and  city  fully 
heard  at  the  bar. 

Two  Members  for  Not  one  Member  lor 
Edinburgh,  forTy-fiv<j  Eoftcn  in  either  Houfc, 
for  Scotland  io  the  oar  for  all  or  My  part 
Lower  Houfe,and  fix-  of  America,  DO/  even 
teen  in  the  Upper  •  veice  in  electing  pnc. 
Houfe. 

Charge,  aa  overt  aA 
of  rebellion,  and  an 
atrociout  murder- 
proved  on  a  full  hear- 
ing, and  by  compe- 
tent evidence. 

Frequent  confer" 
ences  held'  'between 
the  two  Houfei  to 
compare  the  evidence, 
&c. 

Punifliment— A  fine 
of  aoool. 


Began  the  Mtb,  and 
ended  the  jift  of 
March,  1774,  being  in 
all  fevemten  daft. 

Witneflea  examined 
at  the  Privy  Council, 
and  their  evidence 
fuppreCcd. 


The  Agent  refofed  a 
be«i»S  at  tbe  bar. 


Charge,  a  riot  fend 
trcfpaf-  •  -no  evi- 
dence, and  no  bear- 
ing. 


Not 
ence. 


DOC     confer- 


For  proof,  fee  (^ 
Journal*  of  the  Lord* 
and  Commons  in  1737, 
and  the  bill  agaiaft 
Edinburgh. 


Punifhmeat— — -The 
lofi  of  their  port,  to 
the  injury  of  the 
town,  at  the  loweft 
and  moil  favourable 
cftima'e  of  500.000], 
the  reftoration  of  their 
port,  and  '  of  the  ufe 
qf  their  property,  left 
at  the  King'*  mercy, 
after  .they  fliall  have 
paid  for  rotten  tea  the 
full  price  of  that  whieb 
it  found,  and  all  da- 
ffi3Se'> to  the  amount, 
we  may  prefume,  of 
30,000). 

Journals  of  the  Lord* 
and  Commoni  1774, 
and  tb<  Boftott  port 
bill. 


141 


THE    BOSTON   PORT    BILL 

for  firing  on  a  mob  of  infuriated  citizens,  had 
been  reprieved  by  Queen  Caroline,  and  while 
under  the  royal  protection  had  been  forcibly 
taken  from  his  prison  by  the  angry  populace  and 
hanged. 

No  bird  of  prey  ever  pursued  its  quarry  more 
relentlessly  than  did  the  King  and  his  Cabinet  ill- 
fated  Boston.  Rendered  desperate  by  the  hostile 
criticism,  which  the  Boston  Port  Bill  provoked, 
and  fully  cognizant  that  the  citizens  of  Boston 
would  defy  the  mandate  of  Parliament  and  be 
supported  in  their  opposition  by  public  opinion 
in  England,  the  maddened  King  and  his  Minis- 
try, in  the  vain  hope  that  their  policy  of  intimi- 
dation would  be  successful,  quickly  caused  to  be 
introduced  into  the  House  of  Commons  other 
Bills  which  were  aimed  at  the  Province  of  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay as  well  as  at  unhappy  Boston. 

The  first  of  these  was  entitled  an  "  Act  for  the 
better  regulating  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts-Bay," and  was  read  for  the  first  time  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  fifteenth  of  April.  It 
provided  for  the  altering  of  the  ancient  charter 
of  the  Province  and  the  changing  of  its  form  of 
government. 

The  Ministry  had  long  been  jealous  of  the 
rights  conveyed  to  the  colonies  by  the  charters, 
which  had  been  granted  at  a  time  when  "  col- 
onies were  considered  instruments  of  commerce 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

rather  than  objects  of  government."  The  oppor- 
tunity afforded  by  the  disorders  in  Boston  was 
eagerly  seized  upon  as  an  excuse  for  remodelling 
the  government  of  the  Province,  for  the  temper 
of  Parliament,  as  shown  by  the  ease  with  which 
the  Boston  Port  Bill  was  put  through,  was  most 
hostile  to  that  Colony. 

The  object  of  the  Bill  was  to  take  the  govern- 
ment out  of  the  hands  of  the  people.  The  changes 
called  for  the  appointment  of  the  Council  by  the 
King,  instead  of  their  election  by  the  General 
Court  of  the  Province  as  heretofore,  their  tenure 
of  office  to  be  subject  only  to  the  King's  pleas- 
ure. The  Governor  was  empowered  to  appoint, 
and  with  consent  of  his  Council  remove,  all  the 
Judges  of  the  Inferior  Courts,  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, Provost  Marshal,  Justices  and  other  officers 
of  the  Council  or  Courts  of  Justice,  and  the  Sher- 
iffs, also  to  fill  vacancies  which  might  arise  in  the 
offices  of  Chief  Justice,  and  Judges  of  the  Supe- 
rior Court.  Town  meetings  without  the  writ- 
ten permission  of  the  Governor  were  prohibited, 
except  for  the  purpose  of  local  elections. 

The  juries  and  grand  juries,  which  had  hith- 
erto been  elected  by  the  freeholders  of  the 
towns,  were  henceforth  to  be  summoned  and 
returned  by  the  Sheriff.  In  short  the  whole 
machinery  of  the  Courts  was  to  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  royal  appointees.  The  opposition  to  this 

143 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

measure  in  Parliament  was  fierce,  though  futile, 
and  the  proposed  act  of  changing  the  govern- 
ment of  a  people  without  their  consent  was  pop- 
ularly characterized  as  "the  highest  and  most 
arbitrary  act  of  sovereignty  that  one  nation  can 
exercise  over  another,  for  charters  are  sacred  and 
only  revocable  by  due  process  of  law  for  proven 
misconduct." 

To  enforce  the  two  previous  Acts  another 
measure  was  passed,  entitled  "An  Act  for  the 
impartial  administration  of  Justice  in  the  case  of 
persons  questioned  for  any  acts  done  by  them  in 
execution  of  the  law  or  for  the  suppression  of 
riots  in  the  province  of  Massachusetts-Bay."  It 
provided  that  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts- 
Bay  should  be  empowered  to  remove  to  Eng- 
land the  trial  of  any  person  indicted  for  murder 
or  any  capital  offense  committed  in  assisting  the 
Magistrates  in  executing  the  laws  of  the  pro- 
vince. The  Governor  was  also  empowered  to 
compel  the  attendance  at  the  trial  of  any  wit- 
nesses deemed  necessary  to  the  prosecution  or 
defense. 

The  evident  purpose  of  this  Act  was  to  stiffen 
the  courage  of  those  entrusted  to  carry  out  the 
King's  commands  in  Massachusetts-Bay.  Its  effect 
was  to  demonstrate  that  in  the  wreaking  of  min- 
isterial vengeance  upon  Boston  all  ideas  of  jus- 
tice and  right  had  been  laid  aside. 

144 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

Determined  that  the  new  policy  against  Bos- 
ton should  not  fail  from  lack  of  sufficient  armed 
support  to  the  new  magistrates,  a  Bill  was  rushed 
through  Parliament,  which  decreed  that  the  bar- 
racks which  were  provided  for  the  soldiers  at 
the  expense  of  the  Colonies,  and  which,  for  the 
sake  of  good  order,  were  in  many  cases  erected 
outside  the  limits  of  the  towns,  "  might  be  dis- 
used at  the  commanding  officer's  pleasure  and  the 
troops  quartered  in  the  heart  of  the  town,  in 
public  houses,  and  houses  uninhabited  and  even 
in  private  families,  it  is  presumed,  if  the  neces- 
sity of  the  case  is.  thought  to  require  it." 

To  many  the  very  existence  of  constitutional 
government  in  England  seemed  endangered  by  a 
policy  which  denied  the  protection  accorded  by 
charters,  constitutions  and  even  common  law  to 
the  people  of  Massachusetts-Bay.  The  feeling 
sprang  up  that  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  at 
home  must  eventually  become  endangered,  if 
the  Ministry  were  successful  in  destroying  the 
constitutions  and  rights  of  the  colonists. 

"Nothing,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  Kentish 
Gazette,  on  June  iith,  "can  be  more  truly 
Machiavellian  in  our  Ministry  than  their  first 
endeavouring  to  sap  the  liberties  of  our  settle- 
ments abroad.  Every  act,  however  injurious  to 
freedom,  loses  its  horror  by  repetition.  Thus  by 
progressive  steps,  and  the  pleading  of  precedents, 

145 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

we  may  expect  shortly  to  see  all  of  our  most 
valuable  privileges  taken  away  from  us,  without 
so  much  as  feeling  their  loss,  till  their  restoration 
is  irremediable.1' 

In  the  meantime  g  determined  effort  had  been 
made  in  Parliament  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the 
tea  duty  with  its  obnoxious  preamble,  for  it  was 
believed  by  many  that  in  this  way  alone  could 
America  be  conciliated  and  the  threatened  crisis 
averted.  Though  strenuously  advocated  by  the 
minority  in  Parliament,  this  measure  failed  in  the 
Commons  by  a  vote  of  nearly  four  to  one. 

Not  satisfied  with  the  passage  of  the  four 
measures  framed  against  Boston  and  Massachu- 
setts-Bay, the  Ministry,  with  a  view  of  prevent- 
ing the  extension  of  colonial  government  safe- 
guarded by  charter  rights,  and  in  disregard  of 
the  claims  of  Massachusetts-Bay,  Connecticut, 
New  York  and  Virginia,  passed  a  bill  extending 
the  boundaries  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  over 
all  the  territory  now  occupied  by  the  states  of 
Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Wiscon- 
sin. The  Bill  placed  the  government  of  all  this 
vast  territory  in  the  hands  of  a  Governor  and 
Council  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  sanctioned 
"  the  free  exercise  of  the  religion  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  and  confirmed  to  its  clergy  their  ac- 
customed dues  and  rights."  It  virtually  did 
away  with  the  jury  system,  and  left  the  people, 

146 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

who  were  to  colonize  this  vast  territory,  without 
the  protection  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and 
without  any  share  in  its  government. 

The  effect  of  this  measure  was  to  strengthen 
greatly  the  conviction  in  England  that  the 
Jacobite  influences  were  still  at  work  in  the 
Cabinet.  To  the  influence  of  the  Pope  and 
Lord  Bute  was  ascribed  the  provision  sanction- 
ing and  legalizing  the  use  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic religion  in  America,  a  privilege  which  had 
long  been  denied  the  people  of  Ireland.  Many 
of  those  whose  loyalty  to  the  King  and  mistaken 
idea  of  the  royal  prerogative,  had  hitherto  coun- 
tenanced the  measures  passed  to  uphold  the  su- 
premacy of  Parliament  in  America,  were  shocked 
at  this  new  step.  The  press  was  very  bitter  in 
its  comments.  The  satirists  found  it  a  new  field 
for  their  attacks.  No  expression  of  opinion 
could  be  more  forcible  or  caustic  than  the  fol- 
lowing comments  on  the  passage  of  the  Bill 
which  appeared  in  the  Kentish  Gazette  of  June 
22nd-25th,  1 774,  the  first  of  which  was  inspired 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  fact  that,  when  speak- 
ing in  opposition  to  the  Bill,  "  Lord  Camden  on 
reaching  the  religious  part  of  the  bill  directed 

his   discourse   to   the  Bench   of  B ,  telling 

them  that,  as  by  the  Bill  the  Catholic  religion 
was  made  the  established  religion  of  that  vast 
continent,  it  was  impossible  that  they  could  be 

147 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

silent  on  the  occasion.  He  called  the  bill  a 
child  of  inordinate  power,  and  desired  and  asked 
if  any  of  that  bench  would  hold  it  out  for  bap- 
tism." 

EPIGRAM 

"  (To)  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Right  Reverend 
the  Bench  of  Bishops  to  the  Quebec  Bill,  which  yes- 
terday received  the  Royal  Assent. 
Old  Nick,  highly  pleased  at  what  yesterday  past, 
With  rapture  exclaim'd,  '  We  have  got  it  at 

last; 
What  MARY,  nor  CHARLES,  nor  JAMES  cou'd 

atchieve, 
We   have  partly  obtained  by   the  crosier   and 

sleeve ; 
But  let  us  be  grateful — 

(then  calling  an  imp) 
Do  you  hear  my  young  Tycho  !   when  next  I 

want  drink'; 

Instead  of  that  liquid  of  brimstone  you  dish  up, 
Pray  let  me  be  serv'd,  every  day  with  a  Bishop. 

LONDON 

"As  soon  as  the  division  was  over,  on  Friday, 
in  the  House  of  Lords,  a  member  of  the  minor- 
ity asked  Lord  Chatham,  whether  it  would  not 
be  right  to  protest  ?  '  No,  no,  (replied  his  Lord- 
ship) there  can  be  little  use  in  a.  few  names  pro- 
testing against  this  bill;  the  insult  it  offers  to 

148 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

people  at  large  as  PROTESTANTS  and  BRITONS 
will  hold  it  in  sufficient  remembrance.' ' 

Nothing  can  more  vividly  picture  London's 
attitude  towards  this  new  attack  upon  the  Amer- 
ican Colonies  than  the  description  given  by  an 
English  newspaper  editor  of  the  scene  in  the  city 
on  the  day  the  royal  Assent  was  given  to  the  Que- 
bec Bill.  "  The  Park,  Whitehall  and  other  parts 
of  Parliament-street,"  he  wrote,  "  were  thronged 
with  multitudes  of  people  in  dress  and  appearance 
much  above  the  common  level.  As  the  King 
passed  they  gave  him  a  most  cordial  salute  of  groans 
and  hisses  ;  the  universal  cry  was  '  No  Popery  ! 
No  French  laws !  No  Protestant  Popish  King  ! 
The  Duke  of  Gloucester  for  ever  ! '  His  Majesty 
was  observed  several  times  to  change  colour,  but 
whether  from  a  consciousness  that  he  was  suffer- 
ing in  a  religious  cause,  or  whether  from  the  su- 
preme delight  he  felt  at  passing  an  act  so  univer- 
sally odious  to  the  factious  citizens,  he  bronzed  it 
out  with  a  comfortable  share  of  firmness.  When 
he  executed  the  Romish  business  by  passing  the  Que- 
bec Bill,  the  people  on  his  return  grew  exceed- 
ingly clamourous  ;  they  groaned  most  hideously 
until  the  state-coach  arrived  opposite  Mr.  Church- 
ill's house,  in  Parliament-street,  when  (Mr.  Wilkes 
being  at  the  window)  a  loud  huzza  ensued ;  the 
King  bowed,  but  the  people,  too  honest  to  deceive 
his  Majesty,  instantly  shouted,  '  Wilkes  for  ever/' 

149 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

The  state-coach  had  no  sooner  entered  the  Park, 
than  the  multitude  who  had  accompanied  it  to 
the  Parliament-House,  being  joined  by  a  prodig- 
ious concourse  of  people,  the  hiss,  groans  and  cry 
of  '  No  Popery  !  No  French  laws !  The  Protes- 
tant Duke  of  Gloucester!'  became  incessant.  The 
King  once  leaning  his  head  toward  the  coach  win- 
dow, which  was  beset  with  numbers,  a  fellow, 
with  great  jocularity,  called  out  '  God  bless  your 
Majesty's  head,  but  damn  Lord  Bute's.'  His  Maj- 
esty reddened,  but  soon  collecting  his  firmness, 
shewed  as  much  contempt  for  the  rabble  as  James 
II  when  he  took  water  to  escape  their  fury.  .  .  . 
A  fellow  returning  through  the  Park  with  the 
sword  of  state  on  his  shoulder,  the  case  which 
contained  it  being  exactly  like  a  crucifix,  some  of 
the  mob  insisted  upon  seeing  the  contents;  the 
fellow  stopped,  and  opened  the  case,  but  when 
they  perceived  it  contained  only  a  very  harmless 
sword,  they  went  away  saying '  they  really  thought 
it  was  a  present  from  the  Court  of  Rome  of  a 
Popish  Crucifix,  for  the  use  of  the  Protestant  King 
of  England?" 

Letters  from  America  soon  appeared  in  the 
press  and  told  of  the  instantaneous  determina- 
tion of  many  of  the  Colonies  to  revive  the  Non- 
Importation  Agreements,  which  had  proved  in 
the  past  such  formidable  weapons  of  retaliation 
against  the  attacks  upon  their  liberties.  These 

150 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

also  dwelt  strongly  upon  the  indignation  aroused 
in  the  other  Colonies,  their  sympathy  for  Boston 
and  their  promised  assistance  in  her  time  of  dis- 
tress. The  calmness  of  the  Bostonians,  when  they 
received  the  news  of  the  vengeful  legislation 
aimed  against  them,  and  their  firm  determin- 
ation to  suffer  the  penalty  imposed,  rather  than 
pay  for  the  tea,  was  considered  to  redound  greatly 
to  their  credit. 

The  new  and  offensive  measures  were  de- 
nounced as  being  the  handiwork  of  a  Junto  in 
the  Ministry.  Fierce  denunciation  of  the  lat- 
ter filled  the  press,  for  such  was  the  loyalty  and 
love  for  the  King  in  both  England  and  America, 
that  he  was  absolved  from  all  participation  in  the 
attacks  upon  his  American  subjects. 

Warnings  by  innuendo  that  the  King  was 
being  deceived  as  to  the  measures  the  Ministry 
were  favouring  were  not  infrequent.  That  the 
course  he  was  pursuing  was  most  distasteful  to  a 
certain  element  may  be  gathered  from  the  fol- 
lowing which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle 
on  June  3Oth,  1774,  shortly  after  the  passage  of 
the  Boston  and  Massachusetts  Acts. 

To  the  PRINTER 

How  Some  Princes  are  deceived ;    a  true  picture. 

"  FOUR  or  five  men  usually  form  themselves 
into  a  cabal,  and  conspire  together  to  deceive 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

and  betray  their  Royal  Master.  This  knot  of 
knaves  prescribe  what  be  is  to  think,  and  put 
into  his  mouth  the  very  words  he  is  instructed  to  ut- 
ter. They  shut  him  up,  and  as  it  were  imprison 
him  in  his  own  Palace,  so  that  truth  shall  never 
be  able  to  come  near  him.  He  is  permitted  to 
know  nothing  but  what  they  or  their  spies  planted 
about  him  think  fit  to  tell  him.  By  their  in- 
trigues and  influence  he  prefers  the  most  unde- 
serving men  to  the  first  dignities  and  posts  in  the 
empire ;  and  to  make  way  for  them  disgraces 
and  dispossesses  the  most  worthy  of  his  subjects,  and 
the  most  devoted  to  his  and  the  nation's  interest." 

A  Ballad  entitled  "  The  Boston  Bill/*  which 
appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  July  23d— 
25th,  1774,  and  is  here  reprinted,  well  illustrates 
the  unwillingness  to  associate  the  King  with  the 
odium  attached  to  the  Boston  measures. 

It  also  described  the  vehemence  with  which 
the  Bill  was  pushed  by  the  administration,  the 
futile  opposition  of  America's  friends  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  unseemly  haste  and  vindictiveness 
displayed  by  Lord  Mansfield  (William  Murray) 
in  his  demand  for  speedy  legislation. 

THE    BOSTON  BILL 

A  BALLAD 

If  at  a  time  to  turn  a  rhyme, 
I  have  a  particle  of  skill, 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

My  muse  wou'd  for  her  subject  chuse, 
That  wond'rous  act  the  Boston  Bill. 

The  steady  North  stept  boldly  forth, 

Each  clause  was  fram'd  his  mouth  to  fill, 

Resolved  to  make  th'  Atlantic  quake, 
He  carried  thro'  the  Boston  Bill. 

The  blade  of  Burke  and  Dempster's  dirke, 
From  Irish  bog  and  Scottish  hill; 

Were  brandish'd  bright,  in  the  Court's  sight, 
In  vain  against  the  Boston  Bill. 

Not  Isaac  Barre  cou'd  make  it  tarry, 

It  rapid  ran  like  wheel  of  mill ; 
Old  Abram's  self,  had  seem'd  an  elf, 

Had  he  oppos'd  the  Boston  Bill. 

To  th'  Upper  House  it  went  up  souse, 
Of  no  effect  was  Chatham's  will, 

His  quiv'ring  crutch,  could  hardly  touch, 
The  borders  of  the  Boston  Bill. 

Not  Leinster's  fire,  nor  Camden's  ire, 
The  Mother  Country's  rage  could  still ; 

She  stopt  each  ear,  and  wou'd  not  hear, 
One  word  against  the  Boston  Bill. 

But  tell  us,  Murray,  why  such  hurry, 

Thus  with  Cane  Wood  those  men  to  drill; 

Whom  if  left  free,  we  soon  shou'd  see, 
Do  well  without  a  Boston  Bill. 

153 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Come  let  us  sing  long  live  our  King, 
For  we  are  sure  be  means  no  ill, 

And  hope  the  best  for  the  opprest 
By  the  unhappy  Boston  Bill. 

In  August,  the  Bill  of  Rights  Society  rec- 
ommended to  the  electors  of  England  a  platform 
on  which  candidates  for  the  coming  Parliament 
must  swear  to  stand,  provided  they  desired  the 
support  of  this  powerful  element  in  English  pol- 
itics. Among  other  stipulations  made  therein 
was  the  following  : 

"ii  th.  You  shall  endeavour  to  restore  to 
America  the  essential  right  of  taxation  by  Rep- 
resentatives of  their  own  free  election  ;  repeal- 
ing the  acts  passed  in  violation  of  that  right 
since  the  year  1763;  and  the  universal  excise, 
so  notoriously  incompatible  with  every  principle 
of  British  liberty,  which  has  been  lately  substi- 
tuted in  the  colonies,  instead  of  the  laws  of  cus- 
toms/' 

Discussion  of  the  American  question  pre- 
dominated throughout  England  in  the  autumn 
of  1774.  The  platform  adopted  by  the  Free- 
holders of  Middlesex  County  in  September, 
1 774,  and  upon  which  Wilkes  was  returned  un- 
opposed to  Parliament  as  member  from  Middle- 
sex for  the  fifth  time,  called  for  the  repeal  of 
the  American  legislation,  as  may  be  seen  from 

"54 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

the  perusal  of  the  following  extract  from  the 
London  Chronicle  of  September  2/th— 29th,  1774: 

"  The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  engagement 
signed  by  John  Wilkes  and  John  Glynn,  Esqrs. 

"  We  \Jobn  Wilkes  and  John  Glynn\  do  sol- 
emnly promise  and  engage  ourselves  to  our  con- 
stituents, if  we  have  the  honour  of  being  chosen 
the  Representatives  in  Parliament  of  the  county 
of  Middlesex,  that  we  will  endeavour  to  the  ut- 
most of  our  power  to  restore  and  defend  the 
excellent  form  of  government  modelled  and  es- 
tablished at  the  Revolution,  and  to  promote  acts 
of  the  Legislature,  for  shortening  the  duration 
of  Parliaments,  for  excluding  Placemen  and  Pen- 
sioners from  the  House  of  Commons,  for  a  more 
fair  and  equal  representation  of  the  people,  for 
vindicating  the  injured  rights  of  the  Freeholders 
of  this  county,  and  the  whole  body  of  electors 
of  this  united  kingdom,  and  an  act  for  the  re- 
peal of  the  four  late  acts  respecting  America,  the 
Quebec  act,  establishing  Popery  and  the  system 
of  French  Canadian  laws  in  that  extensive  prov- 
ince, the  Boston  port  act,  the  act  for  altering 
the  charter  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts- 
Bay,  and  the  act  for  the  trial  in  Europe  of  per- 
sons accused  of  criminal  offences  in  America, 
being  fully  persuaded  that  the  passing  of  such 
acts  will  be  of  the  utmost  importance  for  the 
security  of  our  excellent  constitution,  and  the 

155 


restoration  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  our  fel- 
low subjects  in  America. 

JOHN  WILKES,  JOHN  GLYNN." 

Thoughtful  England  felt  that  a  crisis  was 
fast  approaching.  Letters  from  America,  many 
of  which  were  handed  over  to  the  press  for  pub- 
lication by  their  recipients,  told  of  the  approach- 
ing Congress  of  the  Colonies  and  of  the  una- 
nimity with  which  Boston  was  being  supported. 

Warnings  that  the  Ministry  had  gone  too  far 
in  its  punishment  of  Boston  took  varied  forms. 
Of  these  none  was  more  powerful  than  the  car- 
toon* entitled  "  A  POLITICAL  LESSON/'  repro- 
duced upon  the  opposite  page.  From  the  in- 
scription upon  its  margin  we  learn  that  it  was 
Printed  for  John  Bowles  at  No.  fj  in  Cornhill 
(London),  mventf  et  fecit  by  J.  Dixon  and 
Published  J  Sepr.  1774,  at  the  price  i'6d.  The 
scene  of  the  disaster  which  it  pictures  is  clearly 
and  unmistakably  defined  by  the  shattered  mile- 
stone marked  "  To  Boston  VI  Miles"  and  guide- 
post  labelled  "  To  SALEM,"  as  being  on  the 
boundary  line  between  the  two  places.  The  ter- 
rific fall  received  by  the  royal  Governor,  General 

*  The  artist  and  engraver  who  thus  so  ingeniously  and  so  truly  pre- 
dicted the  doom  of  England's  domination  over  America  was  one  of  Eng- 
land's foremost  mezzotint  engravers  of  portraits.  In  the  standard  work, 
"British  Mezzotint  Portraits,  described  by  J.  C.  Smith,"  the  author 
allots  space  to  the  description  of  thirty-eight  of  J.  Dixon' s  works  and 
characterizes  them  as  "powerful,  well  drawn,  and  rich  in  line." 

156 


POLITICAL  LESSON. 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

Gage,  indicated  the  artist's  conception  of  the 
overthrow  of  royal  authority  in  America,  which 
he  believed  would  follow  the  removal  of  the 
Government  of  Massachusetts-Bay  "  from  their 
ancient  and  legal  seat  in  Boston  to  the  Court 
House  in  Salem." 

The  news  of  the  passage  of  the  Act,  which 
would  close  its  port,  reached  Boston  on  the 
tenth  of  May  and  was  immediately  printed  upon 
paper  with  a  black  border  and  cried  about  the 
streets  under  the  name  of  "  a  barbarous  cruel 
bloody  and  inhuman  murder."  The  counsel  of 
the  surrounding  towns  was  immediately  sought, 
and  on  the  twelfth  of  May  delegates  from  nine 
towns  met  at  Faneuil  Hall  and  denounced  the 
action  of  Parliament  and  promised  assistance  to 
Boston  in  her  hour  of  trouble.  Letters  were 
authorized  to  be  sent  to  the  other  colonies  pro- 
posing a  cessation  of  trade  with  Great  Britain, 
as  it  was  believed  that  only  by  united  action 
could  Boston  secure  justice.  The  next  day  a 
numerously  attended  town  meeting  was  held,  the 
Boston  Bill  denounced,  promises  of  assistance 
were  given  to  all  citizens  who  should  be  in  need 
through  lack  of  their  accustomed  employment, 
and  an  appeal  was  made  "  to  all  the  sister  colo- 
nies inviting  a  universal  suspension  of  exports 
and  imports,  promising  to  suffer  for  America 
with  a  becoming  fortitude,  confessing  that  singly 

'59 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

they  might  find  their  trial  too  severe  and  en- 
treating not  to  be  left  to  struggle  alone,  when 
the  very  being  of  every  colony,  considered  as  a 
free  people  depended  upon  the  event." 

On  the  same  day  the  new  Governor  and  Cap- 
tain-General of  the  Province,  General  Gage, 
sailed  into  the  harbour  and,  after  remaining  four 
days  at  the  Castle  with  Governor  Hutchinson, 
entered  the  town.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  an 
attempt  was  made  at  a  town  meeting  to  secure 
the  passage  of  a  resolution  authorizing  that  pay- 
ment for  the  tea  be  made,  but  the  vote  of  dis- 
approval was  almost  unanimous.  Encouraged 
by  promises  of  assistance  from  the  towns  of  the 
neighbouring  Provinces,  Boston  cheerfully  re- 
solved to  suffer  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  all  the 
Colonies.  The  new  Governor,  who  had  come 
to  conciliate,  only  increased  the  feeling  against 
the  Ministry  by  refusing  to  concur  in  the  elec- 
tion of  the  new  Council. 

Tidings  of  the  proposed  punishment  of  Bos- 
ton travelled  rapidly  through  the  Colonies. 
Public  meetings  were  held  at  which  the  Min- 
istry was  denounced  and  Boston  upheld  in  the 
stand  she  was  taking,  for  it  was  universally  rec- 
ognized that,  if  the  tea  be  paid  for  and  assur- 
ance be  given  by  the  Bostonians  that  the  duties 
hereafter  could  be  peacefully  collected,  the  King 
would  thus  establish  a  precedent  for  forcing  the 

160 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

obnoxious  tea  upon  America.  Lengthy  accounts 
of  the  action  of  the  people  in  all  sections  of  the 
Colonies  soon  appeared  in  the  press  of  both 
countries,  and  not  only  cheered  the  distressed 
Bostonians,  but  also  informed  all  England  that 
America  looked  upon  the  attack  upon  Boston 
as  being  one  in  which  the  future  of  the  liberty  of 
America  was  involved.  Of  all  the  stories  of 
these  proceedings  which  reached  England,  pos- 
sibly none  was  more  impressive  than  the  appended 
concise  statement  of  the  happenings  in  the  little 
village  of  Farmington  on  that  twenty-third  day  of 
May,  for  the  height  of  the  Liberty  Pole  therein 
mentioned,  again  vividly  associated  the  struggles 
which  the  people  of  England  were  making  for 
the  retention  of  their  own  constitution  under 
the  leadership  of  Wilkes,  with  the  stand  being 
taken  by  the  Americans  in  behalf  of  privileges 
granted  under  the  ancient  charters  of  the  Colo- 
nies, then  being  jeopardized  by  the  recent  Ameri- 
can legislation. 

AMERICA 

"  Farmington,  in  Connecticut,  May  23.  Early 
in  the  morning  of  the  I9th  instant,  was  found 
the  following  hand-bill,  posted  up  in  various 
parts  of  the  town,  viz. 

"  '  To  pass  through  the  fire  at  six  o'clock 
this  evening,  in  honour  to  the  immortal  God- 
dess of  Liberty,  the  late  infamous  act  of  the 

161 


B sh  Parliament,  for  further  distressing  the 

American  Colonies :  The  place  of  execution 
will  be  the  public  parade,  where  all  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty are  desired  to  attend.' 

"  Accordingly,  a  body  were  assembled,  of 
near  one  thousand  people,  when  a  huge  pole, 
just  45  feet  high,  was  erected,  and  consecrated 
to  the  Shrine  of  Liberty :  after  which  the  Act 

of  P 1  for  blocking  up  Boston  harbour  was 

read  aloud,  sentenced  to  the  flames,  and  executed 
by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman  :  After 
which  several  resolves  were  passed,  Nem.  con. 
expressing  dislike  to  the  said  Act." 

On  the  first  of  June  the  Act  went  into  effect. 
Industry  stopped  in  Boston,  and  compulsory  idle- 
ness with  its  attendant  suffering  threatened  its 
inhabitants.  The  next  day  news  came  of  the 
passage  of  the  Acts,  which  took  away  the  char- 
ter of  their  Province  and  provided  for  trial  in 
England  "  of  any  who  under  the  pretext  of  sup- 
porting or  carrying  into  execution  the  late  acts 
of  Parliament  shall  murder  or  destroy  the  peo- 
ple of  this  country." 

Almost  immediately  the  Town  Committee 
forwarded  a  circular  letter  to  all  sections  of  the 
Province  which  called  attention  to  "  the  present 
distressed  condition  of  this  insulted  province" 
and  invited  signatures  to  a  "solemn  covenant" 
which  was  inclosed,  and  which  would  bind  its 

162 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

signers  to  refrain  from  any  commercial  inter- 
course with  England  or  purchase  any  of  its  pro- 
ducts after  the  first  of  the  following  August,  and 
declaring  that  in  this  way  alone  the  "horrors 
of  slavery  or  the  carnage  of  a  civil  war  might 
be  averted." 

Starvation  soon  began  to  stare  thousands  in 
Boston  in  the  face,  for  there  were  few  whose 
means  of  earning  their  daily  bread  was  not  af- 
fected. The  shipyards  and  all  the  various  trades 
dependent  upon  this  industry  were  idle,  for  no 
vessel  could  leave  the  stocks  or  wharfs;  build- 
ing ceased,  for  timber  and  bricks  could  not  be 
brought  into  the  harbour ;  the  distillers  and 
sugar  boilers  no  longer  could  receive  their  mo- 
lasses and  sugar  from  the  West  Indies ;  the  truck- 
men and  day  labourers  were  idle,  for  trade  had 
vanished ;  the  small  tradesmen  could  neither  ob- 
tain supplies  or  sell  what  they  had  in  stock,  for 
their  patrons  had  nothing  with  which  to  pay 
them.  Many  who  were  dependent  upon  their 
rent  roll  soon  found  themselves  destitute.  Fuel 
and  provisions  advanced  in  price,  for  the  vessels 
conveying  them  were  obliged  to  unload  their 
cargoes  at  the  few  wharfs  of  Marblehead  and 
then  reload,  thereby  increasing  the  cost  of  all  the 
necessaries  of  life.  Whatever  merchandise  came 
to  Boston  had  to  be  conveyed  by  land  from  Salem 
over  twenty-eight  miles  of  rough  roads. 

163 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Gifts  soon  began  to  pour  in  from  all  parts  of 
the  country.  The  first  of  these  noted  in  the 
English  press  were  "two  hundred  and  seven 
quintals  of  codfish  "  purchased  by  a  subscription 
raised  at  Marblehead ;  South  Carolina  sent  its 
cargoes  of  rice,  Virginia  and  Quebec  their  wheat ; 
flocks  of  sheep  and  droves  of  cattle  were  driven 
to  Boston  from  the  New  England  Colonies. 
Scarcely  a  town  or  a  hamlet  on  the  continent 
failed  to  contribute  liberally  to  alleviate  the  dis- 
tress of  Boston. 

The  West  Indies  sent  their  honorariums  and 
the  London  press,  by  the  following  notice  in- 
formed its  readers  that  even  in  England  the 
question  of  sending  assistance  to  Boston  was  being 
agitated:  "We  hear  that  a  subscription  is  soon 
to  be  opened,  under  very  respectable  patronage, 
for  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  who  are  truly  suf- 
fering all  the  rigours  of  a  siege,  in  opposition 
to  arbitrary  power." 

A  committee  was  appointed  to  receive  the 
donations  and  make  the  best  possible  distribution 
of  the  same,  and  met  daily  at  Faneuil  Hall  to 
investigate  the  application  of  all  those  "suffer- 
ing by  the  Boston  Bill."  The  labourers  were 
set  to  work  on  paving  the  streets,  which  fact 
caused  the  following  ebullition  in  the  Virginia 
Gazette  of  September  I5th,  1774: 

"  By  some  gentlemen  arrived  from  Boston 
164 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

we  are  told  that  at  a  meeting  last  week,  at  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  concerning  the  money,  arising  from 
the  cargo  of  rice  from  South  Carolina,  three 
methods  were  proposed  for  applying  it,  the  build- 
ing a  wharf,  the  construction  of  a  vessel,  and  the 
paving  the  streets ;  when,  after  some  debates,  the 
last  was  adopted ;  and  accordingly  a  large  num- 
ber of  the  poor  people  of  the  town  were  imme- 
diately employed  upon  that  business. 

"On  the  poor  of  Boston  being  employed  in 
paving  the  streets. 

In  spite  of  rice,  in  spite  of  wheat, 
Sent  for  the  Boston  poor  to  eat, 
In  spite  of  brandy,  one  would  think, 
Sent  for  the  Boston  poor  to  drink ; 
Poor  are  the  Boston  poor  indeed, 
And  needy,  though  there  is  no  need : 
They  cry  for  bread ;  the  mighty  ones, 
Instead  of  bread,  give  only  stones." 

By  a  judicious  use  of  the  funds  which  poured 
into  Boston  from  all  quarters  a  brick  yard  was 
started,  vessels  set  up  in  the  stocks,  and  wool, 
flax  and  cotton  bought  and  distributed  to  spin- 
ners, leather  was  supplied  to  shoemakers,  the 
manufactured  product  being  taken  in  pay  for 
the  raw  material  and  distributed  to  the  needy; 
nail-rods  were  also  purchased  for  the  blacksmiths 
and  hemp  for  the  rope-makers.  Every  effort  was 

165 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

thus  made  to  enable  all  who  were  suffering  from 
the  Port  Bill  to  make  a  subsistence. 

In  England  the  news  of  the  determined  way 
in  which  the  people  of  Boston  met  their  hard- 
ships and  of  the  generous  aid  extended  to  them 
in  their  peril  caused  the  conviction  to  be  wide- 
spread that  America  had  decided  to  take  up  the 
gauntlet  flung  down  by  the  Ministry.  The  feel- 
ing was  daily  strengthening  that,  only  through 
America's  successful  opposition  to  the  Ministry, 
could  Englishmen  preserve  their  own  constitution, 
which  opinion  was  well  expressed  by  a  contrib- 
utor to  the  Middlesex  Journal  of  August  9th- 
iith,  1774,  in  the  verses  here  quoted: 

Alarmed,  with  manly  care,  behold, 
The  Colonies  consistent  bold, 

For  Boston's  fate,  their  own 
At  distant  periods  have  to  fear, 
Their  liberties,  and  all  things  dear, 

Of  power  such  seeds  are  sown. 

A  British  senate,  prone  to  gain ; 
Nobility,  a  vicious  train, 

With  luxury  in  bloom. 
Disgrace  the  annals  of  the  brave, 
Commend  the  baseness  of  the  slave, 

As  wretches  fit  for  Rome. 

Let  N —  and  M —  proudly  brave  us, 
America,  we  trust,  will  save  us, 

166 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

Since  all  our  tears  are  vain. 
We  all  revere  old  Runny  Mead, 
True  valour  must  with  tyrants  plead, 

And  liberty  regain.  T.  L. 

The  feeling  had  become  prevalent  also  that, 
owing  to  its  severe  treatment  of  Boston,  the  Min- 
istry had  overreached  itself.  This  was  well  voiced 
by  the  following  stanzas  which  appeared  on  Sep- 
tember 2oth,  1774,  over  the  same  signature,  in 
the  journal  last  quoted: 

Who  has  not  seen  a  musket  ramm'd 
With  too  much  powder  often  cram'd, 

Then  burst,  alas!  asunder. 
By  which  great  mischief  has  been  done, 
By  such  an  overloaded  gun, 

That  roar'd  as  loud  as  thunder. 

Sad  acts  oppressive  have  been  made, 
One  tax,  and  then  another,  laid, 

Such  token  full  of  power. 
Are  like  the  overloaded  gun, 
By  their  own  force  themselves  undone, 

At  Boston  wait  the  hour. 

In  the  meantime  the  Governor,  and  the  As- 
sembly, which  had  been  prorogued  at  Boston,  to 
meet  at  Salem,  June  7th,  were  at  odds  and  the  As- 
sembly was  dissolved,  not,  however,  before  it 
had  appointed  delegates  to  attend  the  Congress 

167 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

of  the  Colonies  which  was  called  to  meet  at 
Philadelphia  in  September.  The  town  meetings 
which  were  expressly  forbidden  to  be  called  af- 
ter the  first  of  August  under  the  new  Acts,  were 
still  held  throughout  the  Province,  and  when 
the  Governor  protested,  he  was  informed  that  the 
only  meetings  held  were  those  which  had  been 
adjourned  from  those  regularly  called  before  the 
Act  went  into  effect.  Many  of  the  members 
of  the  Council  appointed  by  the  Governor  were 
obliged  to  resign.  The  new  judges  dared  not 
officiate.  The  new  juries  refused  to  be  sworn. 

Of  all  the  numerous  letters  from  Boston 
which  appeared  in  the  English  press  none  gave  a 
more  complete  and  graphic  account  of  the  indig- 
nities put  upon  her  people  than  the  following: 

"Boston,  October  I  jib.  Upwards  of  five  months 
have  expired  since  this  devoted  town  has  expe- 
rienced all  the  horrors  of  the  Port-Bill ;  and  as 
if  these  were  not  sufficient  to  satiate  the  malice 
of  our  enemies,  severities  which  that  act,  venge- 
ful as  it  is,  did  not  know  of,  have  been  grafted 
upon  it.  Many  instances  might  be  mentioned  ; 
suffice  it  to  say,  that  a  scow  with  boards  and  old 
iron  have  been  seized  in  a  mill  pond,  and  libelled 
in  an  admiralty  Court ;  a  boat  owned  by  one 
Stewart,  with  sand  for  our  floors,  has  been  taken 
in  our  harbour,  and  the  sand  thrown  into  the  sea 
without  the  form  of  a  trial ;  as  was  a  lighter 

1 68 


INDIGNATION  AT  THE  PUNISHMENT  OF  BOSTON 

load  of  hay  coming  up  from  Braintree  ;  the 
produce  of  the  islands  near  the  town  have  not 
been  suffered  to  be  taken  off;  and  a  float  carry- 
ing sheep  to  feed  on  one  of  those  islands,  has 
been  obliged  to  carry  them  back  again  ;  bread, 
meal  and  other  provisions  were  not  suffered  to 
pass  a  little  ferry  to  Charlestown,  and  their  ferry 
boats  have  been  taken  and  detained  for  daring 
to  attempt  a  passage  after  nine  o'clock  at  night ; 
our  numerous  poor  are  suffering  by  the  rise  of 
wood,  butter,  cheese  and  other  provisions  not 
permitted  to  be  brought  up  as  usual  from  the 
little  rivers  and  bays  in  our  harbour,  and  when 
our  tyrants  have  been  expostulated  with  for  these 
illegal  proceedings,  they  have  insultingly  replied 
that,  agreeable  to  the  act  of  Parliament,  it  was 
to  distress  us ;  and  this  their  intention  has  been 
so  effectually  accomplished  that  it  may  be  af- 
firmed without  exaggeration,  the  loss  this  town 
has  sustained  within  only  one  month  of  our 
blockade,  exceed  the  whole  amount  of  those 
generous  donations  received  from  our  sympa- 
thizing friends  through  the  Continent.  Added 
to  all  this,  our  town  is  surrounded  with  ships 
of  war;  and  it  is  said  the  fleet  at  Newfound- 
land are  to  winter  in  this  harbour,  formidable 
fortifications  are  erected  and  others  erecting  at 
the  only  avenue  to  the  town ;  chains  and  che- 
veaux  de  frise  already  provided  to  stop  up  the 

169 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

entrances  at  pleasure  ;  four  regiments  encamped 
upon  the  Common,  with  a  large  train  of  artil- 
lery and  mattrosses ;  one  regiment  on  Fort-hill, 
one  on  the  new  fortifications  in  the  Neck,  and 
another  regiment  at  Castle  Williams  ;  three  com- 
panies just  arrived  in  the  Rose  man  of  war  from 
Newfoundland ;  transports  dispatched  some  time 
past  to  New  York,  for  two  regiments  from  thence 
and  the  Jersies,  and  to  Quebec  for  two  regi- 
ments from  that  quarter ;  military  stores  and 
implements  of  all  kinds  are  collecting  in  this 
town,  which  has  now  the  appearance  of  a  gar- 
rison. Reports  are  propagated  here,  and  the 
English  papers  announce,  that  six  more  regi- 
ments are  coming  from  Europe.  What  may  be 
the  intention  of  all  this,  and  what  ought  to  be 
the  conduct  of  this  and  the  other  provinces  upon 
so  alarming  an  occasion,  we  shall  not  pretend  to 
say.  This  capital  is  a  spectacle  to  them  and  to 
the  whole  world,  a  striking  example  of  what  is 
to  be  expected  from  the  uncontrolable  power 
claimed  by  a  British  Parliament  over  these  col- 
onies that  have  not  a  single  representative  in  it ; 
but  under  all  these  sufferings  and  terrors  Boston 
has  not  renounced  the  great  and  common  cause 
for  which  it  suffers." 

After  the  story  told  in  previous  pages  of  the 
indignation  aroused  in  England  by  the  passage  of 
the  Boston  Acts  and  the  knowledge  and  regret 

170 


The-  BO 


KSS. 


there  displayed  for  the  distress  caused  thereby, 
no  further  proof  is  needed  that  "  Plate  II "  of 
the  series  issued  by  R.  Sayer  and  J.  Bennett 
as  the  Act  directs  IQ  Now  IJQ4,  entitled  "  The 
BOSTONIANS  in  DISTRESS,"  and  reproduced  upon 
the  opposite  page,  touched  the  hearts  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  sympathy  of  many  of  the  people  of 
London.  The  scene  portrayed  needs  little  ex- 
planation. The  cartoonist  has  pictured  the  Bos- 
tonians  suspended  from  their  LIBERTY  TREE  and 
imprisoned  in  an  enormous  cage.  Here  he  again 
showed  his  thorough  acquaintance  with  Ameri- 
can customs,  for  he  thus  has  given  to  the  men  of 
Boston  the  punishment  meted  out  in  America  to 
slaves  convicted  of  capital  offences,  who,  thus  im- 
prisoned, were  left  to  starve  as  a  terrible  example 
to  their  fellows  in  bondage.  The  parallel  drawn 
was  a  forcible  one,  as  during  the  long  controversy 
which  had  taken  place  the  Americans  in  their 
numerous  petitions  had  repeatedly  referred  to  the 
fact,  that  bereft  of  their  rights,  their  condition 
would  be  that  of  slavery.  At  about  the  time 
this  cartoon  was  issued,  several  of  the  English 
papers  had  published  "  An  American  Parody  on 
the  old  song  of  '  Rule  Britannia,' ' '  the  closing 
stanzas  of  which  pathetically  voiced  the  love 
and  loyalty  felt  in  America  for  Great  Britain 
and  their  plea  to  be  treated  as  subjects  and  not 
as  slaves. 


173 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 
VI 

With  Justice  and  with  Wisdom  reign, 

We  then  with  thee  will  firmly  join, 
To  make  thee  Mistress  of  the  Main, 
"  And  every  shore  it  circles  thine." 
Rule  Britannia,  rule  the  waves, 
But  never  make  your  children  slaves. 

VII 

When  life  glides  slowly  through  thy  veins, 

We'll  then  our  filial  fondness  prove, 
Bound  only  by  the  welcome  chains 
Of  duty,  gratitude,  and  love. 

Rule  Britannia,  rule  the  waves, 
But  never  make  your  children  slaves. 

VIII 

Our  youth  shall  prop  thy  tott'ringe  age; 

Our  vigour  nerve  thy  feeble  arm : 
In  vain  thy  foes  shall  spend  their  rage, — 
We'll  shield  thee  safe  from  ev'ry  harm. 
Rule  Britannia,  rule  the  waves, 
But  never  make  your  children  slaves. 

IX 

For  thee  we'll  toil  with  cheerful  heart, 

We'll  labour — but  we  will  be  free — 
Our  growth  and  strength  to  thee  impart, 
And  all  our  treasures  bring  to  thee. 
Rule  Britannia,  rule  the  waves, 
We're  subjects — but  we're  not  your  slaves. 
174 


The  cartoonist  also  emphasized  Boston's  cry 
for  assistance,  and  the  response  it  met,  by  his  de- 
lineation of  the  scroll  held  aloft  by  one  of  the 
Boston  Fathers,  inscribed  with  a  quotation  from 
Psalm  CVII,  13:  "They  cried  unto  the  Lord  in 
their  Trouble  and  he  fayed  them  out  of  their  Dis- 
trefs"  The  answer  to  the  prayer  is  graphic- 
ally shown  by  the  shallop  laden  with  baskets  of 
codfish  labelled  "  To —  From  the  Committee 

of" — ,  and   was   undoubtedly   suggested 

by  a  knowledge  of  the  gift  of  the  men  of  Mar- 
blehead  referred  to  on  page  164.  He  has  pic- 
tured the  occupants  of  the  boat  as  engaged  in 
alleviating  the  hunger  of  the  imprisoned  Bos- 
tonians.  Possibly  the  knowledge  of  the  numer- 
ous sermons  preached  by  the  Boston  clergy  dur- 
ing the  troubles  in  the  Province,  and  quoted  in 
the  English  press,  suggested  the  religious  aspect 
given  to  the  scene  by  the  long-handled  contri- 
bution boxes,  which  served  as  a  medium  of  con- 
veyance of  the  food  to  its  emaciated  recipients. 
The  huge  parcel  of  papers  labelled  "Promises" 
vividly  calls  to  mind  the  "covenants"  referred 
to  on  page  160.  In  the  distance  may  be  seen  the 
"four  or  five  frigates"  which  Lord  North  had 
predicted  would  be  sufficient  to  enforce  the  Act. 

The  cannon  with  muzzles  pointed  toward 
the  "  Liberty  Tree  "  represent  the  "eight  pieces  of 
ordnance"  which  letters  from  Boston  had  de- 


175 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


scribed  as  being  parked  upon  the  Common.  In 
the  background  may  be  seen  the  troops  "  with 
fife  and  drum,"  which  were  being  landed  at  in- 
tervals to  strengthen  the  royal  forces  in  Boston. 

Few  cartoons  have  ever  more  completely  and 
more  forcibly  pointed  a  moral  than  the  one  which 
forms  the  subject  of  this  chapter.  The  vivid 
picture  it  gave  to  sympathetic  England  of  the 
Bostonians  in  distress  for  defending  the  free- 
dom accorded  them  by  their  charter,  their  cry 
for  assistance  and  the  moral  and  material  response 
thereto,  met  with  a  demand  which  required  that 
the  plate  be  kept  in  use  until  the  badly  worn 
copper  almost  refused  to  hold  its  ink,  which 
fact  is  proven  by  one  of  the  copies  extant  to-day. 


IV 

LONDON'S  KNOWLEDGE  OF 

THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  SONS  OF 

LIBERTY  IN  NEW  YORK 


IV 

LONDON'S  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  ACTIVITIES  OF 
THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY  IN  NEW  YORK 

T  was  the  substantial  response 
to  the  cry  of  distressed  Boston 
for  assistance,  which  furnished 
no  small  portion  of  the  moral 
lesson  told  by  the  cartoon  which 
formed  the  subject  of  the  pre- 
vious chapter.  Plate  III  of  the  series  however 
found  its  subject  in  a  droll  incident  which  oc- 
curred in  the  town  of  New  York  in  the  autumn  of 


179 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

1 774,  the  knowledge  of  which  was  spread  abroad 
in  the  shape  of  a  vote  of  thanks  passed  by  the  Sons 
of  Liberty  of  that  place  (see  page  214).  This 
incident  was  utilized  to  call  attention,  in  a  hu- 
mourous manner,  to  the  determination  known 
to  exist  in  America  to  refrain  from  contributing 
to  the  comfort  of  those  who  wore  the  King's 
uniform,  until  the  suffering  Bostonians  were  re- 
stored to  their  "ancient  privileges  "  and  the  griev- 
ances of  America  redressed. 

The  fact  that  a  naval  captain  figured  in  the 
incident  may  have  added  to  its  interest,  for  the 
print  was  put  upon  the  London  market  at  the 
time  when  the  press  of  that  city  was  chronicling 
the  wholesale  desertions  from  the  English  regi- 
ments stationed  in  the  Colonies,  the  requests  of 
the  officers  for  transfer  from  the  regiments  or- 
dered on  American  service,  and  the  protest  of 
the  veterans  of  the  late  war  against  being  obliged 
to  help  enslave  their  former  comrades  of  many 
a  campaign. 

The  appended  verses  from  the  London  Even- 
ing Post  of  March  i  ith-i4th,  1775,  are  an  ex- 
emplification of  the  feeling  of  the  time : 

"70  the  Printer  of  the  London  Evening  Post. 
"  SIR, 

"  If  you  think  it  consistent  with  your  Safety 
to  publish  the  following  Song,  the  Admission 

i  So 


of  it  into  your  Paper  will  oblige  one  who  is  a 
true  Friend  of  the  Public,  as  well  as  your  con- 
stant reader,  sincere  Friend,  and  humble  Ser- 
vant, NAUTICUS." 

THE  SAILOR'S  ADDRESS 

i 

COME  listen,  my  cocks,  to  a  brother  and  friend, 
One  and  all  to  my  song,  gallant  sailors  attend, 
Sons  of  Freedom  ourselves,  let's  be  just  as  we're 

brave, 

Nor  America's  freedom  attempt  to  enslave. 
Firm  as  oak   are  our  hearts,  where   true   glory 
depends, 

Steady,  boys,  steady, 
We'll  always  be  ready 
To  fight  all  our  foes,  not  to  murder  our  friends. 

ii 

True  glory  can  ne'er  in  this  quarrel  be  won, 
If  New-England   we   conquer,   Old    England's 

undone ; 

On  brethren  we  then  should  assist  to  fix  chains, 
For  the  blood  of  Great  Britain  flows  warm  in 
their  veins. 

Firm  as  oak,  &c. 

in 

Shall  Courtiers'  fine  speeches  prevail  to  divide 
Our  affection  from  those  who  have   fought  by 
our  side  ? 

181 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

And  who  often  have  join'd   us  to  sink   in  the 

main 
The   proud  boasting    navies   of  France  and  of 

Spain  ? 

Firm  as  oak,  &c. 

IV 

Near  relations  of  some  who   at  Court  now  do 

thrive, 

The  Pretender  did  join  in  the  year  forty-five; 
And  many  in  favour,  disguis'd  with  foul  arts, 
While  they  roar  out  for  George,  are  for  James 

in  their  hearts. 

Firm  as  oak,  &c. 

v 

Of  such  men  as  these  let  us  scorn  to  be  tools, 
Dirty  work   to   perform — do  they  take   us  for 

fools  ? 

Brave  sailors  are  wiser  than  thus  to  be  bamm'd, 
Let  them   turn  out   themselves,  lads,  and  fight 

and  be  d 'd. 

Firm  as  oak,  &c. 

VI 

To  the  ground  may  disputes  with  our  Colonies 

fall, 
And  George  long  in  splendour  reign  King  over 

all; 
And  may  those  who  would  set  the  two  lands  by 

the  ears, 

Be  put  in  the  bilboes,  and  brought  to  the  jears. 

182 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

Firm  as   oak  are  our  hearts,  where  true  glory 
depends, 

Steady,  boys,  steady, 

We'll  always  be  ready 
To  fight  all  our  foes,  not  to  murder  our  friends. 

While  the  episode  pictured  was  in  itself 
merely  one  of  the  bubbles  upon  the  waters  of 
unrest  which  had  enveloped  America,  yet  the  les- 
son taught  by  the  cartoon  could  equally  well  have 
been  derived  from  numerous  other  tales  which 
reached  London  and  told  of  a  similar  attitude 
assumed  towards  those  in  the  King's  employ 
throughout  the  Colonies. 

The  details  of  the  print  not  only  prove  its 
designer  to  have  been  familiar  with  the  names 
of  individual  members  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
in  New  York  but  also  to  have  possessed  a  clear 
conception  of  the  political  situation  existing  in 
that  town. 

From  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  days,  po- 
litical sentiment  in  New  York  had  been  affected 
by  too  much  discord  to  admit  of  comprehensive 
treatment  here.  It  is  true  that  the  Assembly 
of  the  Province  had  joined  the  other  legislative 
bodies  in  their  protest  against  the  Stamp  Act, 
and  the  Congress  of  the  Colonies,  called  to- 
gether to  raise  a  united  voice  against  the  same 
measures  met  at  her  capital.  The  history  of 

183 


THE    BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

the  next  nine  years  must,  however,  be  dis- 
missed with  the  mere  statement  that  there  had 
been  no  such  unanimity  of  action  among  her 
people  as  had  so  long  prevailed  in  Massachu- 
setts-Bay and  Virginia,  for  class  distinctions,  with 
their  attendant  jealousies,  were  more  closely 
drawn  in  this  Province  than  in  the  other  Colo- 
nies. Very  broadly  speaking,  her  people  may 
be  said  to  have  been  divided  in  their  politics 
along  religious  lines.  One  element  composed 
largely  of  the  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, who  as  a  rule  represented  the  wealth  and 
refinement  of  the  place,  showed  little  inclination 
to  assist  in  disturbing  the  existing  order  of  affairs, 
though  they  deemed  the  legislation  aimed  against 
America  unwise  and  unjust.  The  members  of 
the  other  party,  men  largely  of  the  Presbyterian 
faith  who  feared  God  but  not  their  King,  were 
disposed  to  enter  the  political  arena,  and  take  up 
the  cudgels  in  behalf  of  what  they  considered 
not  only  their  charter  but  their  God-given 
rights. 

The  Sons  of  Liberty  of  the  town  of  New 
York,  made  up  largely  of  those  who  earned  their 
bread  by  daily  toil,  were  no  less  strenuous  in  the 
defence  of  their  liberties  than  their  brethren  in 
other  parts  of  the  country.  The  Common,  now 
the  City  Hall  Park,  was  their  public  meeting 
ground.  It  was  there  that  their  Liberty  Pole 

184 


THE   SONS  OF   LIBERTY   IN    NEW   YORK 

was  placed,  around  which  their  celebrations  were 
held  and  their  protests  voiced.  It  was  there  also 
that  their  demonstrations  against  the  royal  author- 
ity were  made,  and  the  walls  of  St.  Paul's  Chapel — 
an  engraving  of  which  as  it  appeared  in  Colonial 
days  heads  this  chapter — were  silent  spectators 
of  scenes  more  stirring  in  their  nature  than  were 
witnessed  by  any  other  building  which  has  been 
preserved  to  us  from  that  period. 

The  activities  of  these  Sons  of  Liberty  are 
too  well  known  to  need  repetition  here.  To  the 
shame  of  New  York,  it  must  be  confessed  that  it 
was  only  through  their  efforts  that  the  Non-Im- 
portation Agreement,  which  followed  the  "Acts 
of  1 767,"  was  more  rigidly  observed  in  that  Pro- 
vince than  in  any  other  of  the  Colonies,  for  her 
merchants  had  no  such  enthusiasm  for  the  cur- 
tailment of  their  income,  as  was  displayed  by 
those  whom  they  generally  characterized  in  let- 
ters to  their  correspondents  abroad  as  the  "  Pres- 
byterian junto."  The  method  employed  was  as 
brutal  as  it  was  efficacious  and  was  well  described 
in  the  following  letter  which  circulated  in  the 
English  press  during  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1769: 

"  A  Letter  from  an  English  Dealer  in  the 
Hardware  Business  in  New-Tor ky  to  a  merchant  in 
London. 

" « On  the  arrival  of  your  goods,  which  Mr. 

185 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Copestakes  came  with,  I  was  sent  for  by  the 
Committee ;  on  which  I  thought,  as  I  had  not 
signed  their  agreement,  they  could  have  nothing 
to  do  with  me ;  Three  days  after  another  ship 
arrived,  in  which  I  had  a  large  quantity  of  fine 
cutlery  and  files ;  upon  this,  they  sent  for  me 
again,  and  I  waited  on  them,  and  told  them  I 
had  things  in  your  box,  which  had  been  ordered 
a  long  while  ago ;  on  that  account  they  gave 
leave  I  should  have  that  box,  but  my  other  goods 
they  sent  into  the  stores.  I  told  them,  if  the 
Acts  were  not  repealed  in  three  months,  I  would 
have  them  out,  and  leave  the  place. 

"  '  On  the  1 4th  of  July  the  Ship  Edward  ar- 
rived in  which  I  had  only  317.  4^.  commission, 
and  all  in  chapes  and  necessaries  for  carrying  on 
my  business;  on  the  ijth  I  was  ordered  again 
to  wait  on  the  Committee ;  I  attended  them  di- 
rectly, and  declared  I  could  not  possibly  carry 
on  my  business  without  chapes,  and  shewed  them 
some  pinchbeck  buckles,  out  of  which  I  had 
been  obliged  to  take  the  chapes  to  put  in  silver 
ones.  As  they  saw  I  was  not  willing  to  give  up 
my  goods  to  be  stored,  I  was  set  upon  by  three 
of  the  Committee,  who  threatened  me,  and 
treated  me  in  a  most  scurrilous  manner.  In  con- 
sequence of  my  knowing  they  acted  contrary  to 
law,  I  told  the  above  three  persons  that  I  did 
not  value  either,  or  all  of  them,  and  retired. 

1(6 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

"  '  On  the  2oth  day  of  July  an  advertisement 
was  published  by  them  against  me  :  It  contained 
such  falsehoods  as  I  could  not  have  thought 
would  have  entered  the  heart  of  man.  Disputes 
ran  very  high  that  evening ;  and  as  I  had  some 
friends  who  took  my  part,  they  were  afraid  they 
should  not  succeed ;  and  therefore,  to  prejudice 
the  people  against  me,  caused  several  hundred 
hand-bills,  to  be  put  under  every  door  in  and 
about  town,  directing  everybody  to  meet  at  the 
Liberty  Pole,  on  the  next  evening,  at  six  o'clock, 
and  there  to  consult  what  death  I  should  die. 

"  *  Alarmed  at  this,  by  the  advice  of  some 
friends,  on  Friday,  I  got  several  hundred  hand- 
bills printed,  and  dispersed  them,  informing  the 
publick,  I  would  give  up  my  goods  to  be  stored, 
if  the  President  of  the  Committee  approved  of 
this  advertisement,  and  thought  it  would  satisfy 
everybody.  On  Friday  evening  great  numbers 
of  the  mob  assembled  at  the  appointed  place, 
when  the  President  went  up  to  the  Liberty  Pole, 
and  read  one  of  them  to  the  mob  ;  but  the  three 
persons  beforementioned,  said  my  advertisement 
was  not  sufficient,  and  nothing  would  do  with- 
out I  was  brought  up  ;  however,  I  was  deter- 
mined not  to  go.  I  had  reason  to  apprehend  the 
most  alarming  consequences.  Several  merchants 
were  deputed  from  the  Liberty  Pole  to  bring 
me  there  ;  I  told  them  I  was  an  Englishman, 

187 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

and  it  should  never  be  said  I  died  like  a  dog  ; 
and  as  I  had  nothing  but  death  before  my  eyes, 
I  was  determined  to  die  in  my  own  house. 

"  '  By  this  time  a  part  of  the  mob  came  to 
my  door,  to  fetch  me  by  force.  At  this  instant, 
Major  Pulline  of  the  i6th  regiment,  came  to 
my  house,  and  engaged  to  convey  me  to  the  fort 
in  safety.  We  passed  by  about  400  of  the  mob, 
without  any  hurt ;  but  in  my  way  to  the  fort  I 
had  a  stone  thrown  at  me,  [which]  weighed  four 
pounds,  and  which  hit  me  on  my  right  shoulder, 
and  contused  it ;  I  was  let  blood,  and  it  was  fol- 
lowed with  no  bad  symptoms. 

" '  On  my  arrival  at  the  fort,  the  G 

seemed  angry,  and  said,  now  I  had  given  up  my 
goods,  I  wanted  his  advice  :  I  told  him,  I  wanted 
him  to  protect  my  person  only ;  he  left  me  in 
the  hall,  and  I  saw  him  no  more.  That  night  I 
slept  in  the  fort ;  next  morning  I  told  his  secretary 
I  should  be  glad  to  be  admitted  to  speak  to  the 

G ;  he  acquainted  him  with  it,  and  brought 

me  word  I  must  go  to  Mr.  John  Cruger's,  one 
of  the  Committee,  at  whose  house  I  would  be 
safe :  I  told  him  that  I  did  not  chuse  to  leave 
the  fort,  as  my  life  was  in  imminent  danger. 

"'  During  this  time,  I  had  deputations  from 
the  Liberty  Pole  to  come  up  and  ask  pardon  of 
men  that  I  never  injured,  or  knew  in  my  life; 
and  finding  I  had  nothing  to  expect  from  the 

188 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY  IN   NEW  YORK 

G ,  and  considering  the  money  I  had  owing 

me  here,  I  thought  it  best  to  submit,  and  bow 
my  neck  to  their  Liberty  Pole. 

"  'About one  o'clock,  the  G ordered  me, 

by  his  Steward  to  leave  the  Fort,  as  I  had  not 
followed  his  advice  in  going  to  Mr.  Cruger's ; 
though  if  I  had  attempted  it,  I  believe  I  should 
have  been  murdered  in  the  street.  In  this  situ- 
ation I  was  obliged  to  submit,  after  a  five  days 
stay  in  the  Fort.  They  offered  me  any  num- 
ber of  merchants  to  protect  me  if  I  chose  it ;  I 
told  them  I  would  put  my  life  in  the  hands  of 
three  or  four,  and  with  them  went  and  asked 
pardon  of  the  mobility,  and  was  most  ignomini- 
ously  treated. 

"  '  Now  it  is  resolved  no  one  shall  buy  any- 
thing of  me ;  and  though  this  affair  has  raised 
me  many  friends,  yet  they  dare  not  come  into 
my  shop,  so  I  have  nothing  to  expect  here,  and 
shall  be  a  great  loser  by  my  goods,  a  large  quan- 
tity of  which  are  in  stores,  which  if  they  lie 
long  there,  will  spoil. 

"  '  I  must  not  forget  to  tell  you  of  the  great 
humanity  and  tenderness  of  the  Mayor  and  Al- 
derman, when  the  mob  came  before  my  house ; 
they  stayed  with  my  wife  a  long  while,  and  ex- 
erted themselves  to  the  utmost,  but  could  do 
nothing  with  such  a  riotous  multitude/  ' 

Pending  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  East 
189 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


India  Company's  tea  ships  in  America,  New 
York  had  figured  even  more  prominently  in  the 
English  newspapers  than  Boston,  on  account 
of  the  opposition  agitated  by  her  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty against  the  proposed  unlading  of  the  tea  in 
their  port.  The  determination  of  her  people 
first  publicly  expressed  itself  in  a  meeting  held 
on  October  25th,  1773,  at  which  the  thanks  of 
the  people  there  assembled  were  tendered  to  the 
"  Captains  of  the  London  ships  belonging  to  this 
port  for  their  refusal  to  take  from  the  East  In- 
dia Company  on  freight,  a  quantity  of  tea,  and 
thereby  contributed  so  earnestly  to  discounte- 
nance a  measure,  which  ought  to  be  opposed  by 
all  good  men  as  contrary  to  every  principle  of 
British  liberty,  and  therefore  cannot  but  incur 
the  just  indignation  and  resentment  of  the  much 
injured  Americans." 

An  interesting  incident,  which  followed 
shortly  afterward,  was  thus  described  in  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  published  in  the 
London  Chronicle  of  January  8th- 1 1  th,  1 774,  dated 
New  York,  November  1 5th  : 

"On  Friday  morning  the  5th  instant  was  dis- 
tributed about  the  city  a  printed  advertisement, 
directed  to  the  Friends  of  Liberty  and  Com- 
merce in  New  York,  and  signed  as  follows  : 

By  order  of  the  Legion's  Committee, 

CASSIUS." 


190 


THE   SONS  OF   LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

"  In  this  paper,  Mr.  K ,*  now  in  Lon- 
don, was  charged  with  sundry  speeches  tending 
to  encourage  the  sending  to  America  tea,  sub- 
ject on  its  arrival  to  a  duty  imposed  by  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament,  and  that  in  order  to  get  the 
Commission  of  the  sale  of  the  said  teas,  he  had 
said,  *  There  was  no  danger  from  the  resentment 
of  the  Public  in  New  York,  if  it  should  be  as 
high  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  Stamp  act, 
for  that  now  they  had  a  different  person  to  deal 
with,  and  the  tea  would  be  crammed  down  their 
throats.' 

"  That  animated  by  these  speeches,  the  East 
India  Company  had  concluded  to  send  their  tea 

to  America  ;  and  that  therefore  Mr.  K was 

an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  ought  to  be  treated 
accordingly.  The  same  evening  an  effigy,  with 
his  name  inscribed  in  luminous  letters,  and  sus- 
pended on  a  gallows,  fixed  in  a  cart,  with  a  tea 
canister  before  him,  inscribed  tea,  3d.  sterling 
duty,  with  several  other  inscriptions  and  devices, 
expressive  of  the  people's  resentment,  was  drawn 
through  the  principal  streets  of  this  city,  attended 
by  a  great  multitude  of  spectators,  and  at  last 
burnt  before  the  door  of  the  Coffee-house  ;  after 


*  The  personage  in  whose  honour  this  affair  took  place  was  a  Mr. 
Kelly,  a  former  resident,  who  had  taken  up  his  home  in  England,  and  in 
his  canvass  for  a  seat  in  Parliament  had  attempted  to  curry  favour  with  the 
Administration  by  making  statements  of  a  similar  nature  to  those  here 
quoted. 

191 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

which  the   people   gave   three   cheers  and  dis- 
persed." 

Reports  quickly  followed  of  the  demand  for 
resignation  of  the  three  tea  consignees,  of  their 
ready  compliance  with  the  request,  and  that  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  had  "  threatened  all  the  Pilots 
to  bring  them  to  the  liberty  tree  if  they  conduct 
the  ship  up  to  the  city,"  also  that,  not  satisfied 
with  these  measures,  the  Mohawks,  for  the  Sons 
of  Liberty  in  New  York  had  their  band  of  abo- 
rigines at  this  period  as  well  as  Boston,  pro- 
ceeded to  define  in  unmistakable  terms  their  at- 
titude towards  the  expected  tea  ship,  and  to 
warn  all  citizens  against  receiving  the  tea  by 
placarding  the  city  with  the  following  notice : 

"  Whereas  our  nation  have  lately  been  in- 
formed, that  the  fetters  which  have  been  forged 
for  us  by  Great  Britain,  are  hourly  expected  to 
arrive  in  a  certain  ship  belonging  to,  or  char- 
tered by,  the  East  India  Company.  We  do  there- 
fore declare,  that  we  are  determined  not  to  be 
enslaved  by  any  Power  on  earth  ;  and  that  who- 
soever shall  aid  or  abet  so  infamous  a  design,  or 
shall  presume  to  let  their  store  or  stores  for  the 
reception  of  the  infernal  chains,  may  depend 
upon  it,  that  we  are  prepared,  and  shall  not  fail 
to  pay  them  an  unwelcome  visit,  in  which  they 
shall  be  treated  as  they  deserve ;  by 

"Nov.  29th,  1773.        THE  MOHAWKS." 
192 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN    NEW  YORK 

Copies  of  the  above  broadside  appeared  in 
various  English  papers  about  the  middle  of  Jan- 
uary, 1 774,  shortly  before  the  tidings  had  reached 
England  that  Boston's  tribe  of  Indians  had  de- 
stroyed the  cargoes  of  tea  consigned  to  that  ill- 
fated  port. 

Two  weeks  later  came  the  account  of  a  meet- 
ing held  at  New  York  on  December  I7th,  as 
follows  :  "  On  Friday  last,  in  pursuance  of  an 
advertisement  distributed  about  this  City  the  day 
before,  addressed  to  *  The  Members  of  the  Asso- 
ciation of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,'  a  respectable  num- 
ber of  Citizens  met  at  the  City  Hall,  when  Mr. 
John  Lamb,  a  Member  of  the  Association,  ad- 
dressed the  meeting  and  informed  them,  that  he 
was  desired  by  a  number  of  his  Fellow  Citizens 
to  communicate  to  them,  that  there  were  several 
letters  received  from  the  Committee  of  Corre- 
spondence of  the  Town  of  Boston,  and  a  letter 
from  Philadelphia,  relative  to  the  importation  of 
the  East-India  Company's  Tea,  which  it  was  de- 
sired might  be  communicated.  The  letters  were 
accordingly  read  ;  and  a  Committee  of  fifteen 
Gentlemen  was  chosen  to  answer  these  letters,  and 
to  correspond  with  our  sister  Colonies  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  dutied  Tea.  The  Association  of  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  was  then  read  ;  after  which  the 
Sons  of  Liberty  came  to  several  resolutions,  of 
the  same  tendency  with  those  of  Philadelphia, 

193 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Boston,  &c.,  not  to  suffer  the  introduction  of 
Tea.  Mr.  Lamb  put  the  question,  Whether 
they  agreed  to  the  said  resolution :  It  passed  in 
the  affirmative,  Nem.  Con. 

"The  Mayor  and  the  Recorder  came  into  the 
meeting,  and  informed  them,  that  they  had  a 
message  from  Government  to  deliver  to  the  Peo- 
ple, and  to  take  their  sense  upon  it.  Where- 
upon it  was  agreed,  that  the  Mayor  should  de- 
liver the  message ;  which  he  accordingly  did 
in  the  words  following  : 

"  *  Gentlemen,  I  have  a  message  from  Gov- 
ernment to  deliver  to  you.  The  Governor  de- 
clares, that  the  Tea  will  be  put  into  the  Fort  at 
noon  day  ;  and  engages  his  honour  that  it  shall 
continue  there,  till  the  Council  shall  advise  it  to 
be  delivered  out,  or  till  the  King's  order,  or  the 
Proprietor's  order,  is  known ;  and  then  the  tea 
will  be  delivered  out  at  noon  day.  Gentlemen, 
is  this  satisfactory  to  you  ? '  This  was  answered 
with  a  general  no,  no,  no. 

"  Mr.  Lamb  then  read  to  the  people  the  act 
of  Parliament  that  imposes  the  duty  on  tea  im- 
ported into  America,  and  after  making  some 
pertinent  remarks  on  the  Commons  of  Great 
Britain's  giving  and  granting  the  property  of 
the  Americans,  and  that  the  duty  was  due  on  the 
landing  of  the  tea,  put  the  following  question  : — 
*  Is  it  then  your  opinion,  gentlemen,  that  the 

194 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

tea  should  be  landed  under  this  circumstance  ? ' 
This  was  carried  so  generally  in  the  negative, 
that  there  was  no  call  for  a  division. 

"  Whereas  this  Body  is  informed,  from  un- 
questionable authority,  and  the  letters  that  have 
now  been  read,  that  the  patriotic  inhabitants  of 
the  City  of  Philadelphia,  and  the  Town  of  Bos- 
ton, have  determined  that  no  tea,  subject  to  a 
duty  by  a  British  Act  of  Parliament,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  a  revenue  in  America,  should  be 
landed  in  either  of  those  places. 

"  Resohed,  Nem.  Con.  That  this  Body  highly 
approves  of  that  spirited  and  patriotic  conduct 
of  our  brethren  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia,  and 
the  Town  of  Boston,  in  support  of  the  common 
liberties  of  America.  Then  the  question  was 
put,  whether  this  meeting  should  be  adjourned 
till  the  arrival  of  the  tea  ship,  or  be  dissolved  ? 
It  was  carried,  that  the  meeting  should  be  ad- 
journed till  the  arrival  of  the  tea  ship." 

In  the  meantime  other  letters  had  appeared, 
written  by  "  Officers  at  New  York  to  Friends  in 
London,"  describing  the  growing  excitement  in 
the  town,  the  daily  drilling  of  the  Independent 
Companies,  the  target  practice  of  the  local  ar- 
tillery and  noting  "  that  the  minds  of  the  town 
people  are  inflamed  by  the  examples  of  some  of 
their  principals  :  they  swear  that  they  will  burn 
every  ship  that  comes  in."  The  same  letters 

'95 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

told  of  the  orders  issued  to  the  royal  troops  to 
prepare  ball  cartridges  for  use  and  to  keep  "  good 
flints  in  their  firelocks  and  for  every  officer  and 
soldier,  as  soon  as  any  riot  is  in  town,  to  repair 
directly  to  the  barracks  and  acquaint  the  com- 
manding officer  to  it." 

Then  followed  news  that  "  it  is  determined 
on  the  arrival  of  the  ship-Nancy,  Capt.  Lock- 
yer,  with  the  Tea  from  the  East- India  Com- 
pany, the  Commander  will  be  acquainted  with 
the  sentiments  of  the  inhabitants  respecting  the 
shipping  that  article,  which  will  indubitably  oc- 
casion his  return  with  it  in  statu  quo,  to  Eng- 
land, and  that  he  will  be  provided  with  every 
necessary  for  his  voyage ;  by  which  discreet  in- 
tentions, every  fatality  both  to  this  colony  and 
the  Honourable  Company  will  be  most  happily 
prevented." 

Almost  six  months — months  full  of  excite- 
ment and  feverish  anxiety — had  elapsed  from 
the  day  when  the  people  of  New  York  first  ex- 
pressed their  disapproval  of  the  proposed  tea 
shipments,  before  the  tea  ship  Nancy  hove  in 
sight.  Her  captain's  experience  with  the  Sons 
of  Liberty  and  the  Nancy's  peaceful  departure 
with  unbroken  cargo,  as  well  as  New  York's  "  tea 
party,"  were  related  in  the  following  interesting 
article  which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle 
of  June  4th-7th,  1 774  : 

196 


"New  York,  April  2$th.  On  Monday  last 
[the  1 8th]  advice  was  received  from  Philadel- 
phia, that  Captain  Chambers  of  the  London,  of 
this  port,  had  taken  on  board  at  the  port  of  Lon- 
don, eighteen  boxes  of  fine  tea,  which  were  reg- 
ularly cleared,  and  the  mark  and  numbers  were 
taken  from  the  cocket  by  Capt.  All,  of  Phila- 
delphia. As  Capt.  Chambers  was  one  of  the  first 
who  refused  to  take  the  India  Company's  tea  on 
freight  the  last  Summer,  for  which  he  received 
the  thanks  of  the  Citizens,  they  could  not  believe 
that  he  knew  of  the  teas  being  on  board,  and 
therefore  supposed  it  to  have  been  shipt  by  some 
ministerial  tool,  under  another  denomination,  in 
order  to  injure  the  Owners,  or  the  reputation 
of  the  Master,  or  to  make  an  experiment  of  this 
mode  of  introducing  the  teas  to  America.  The 
Committee  and  the  Inhabitants  were  therefore 
determined  to  examine  into  the  matter  with  great 
vigilance. 

"In  the  night  the  long  expected  tea  ship, 
Nancy,  Capt.  Lockyer,  arrived  at  Sandy  Hook, 
without  her  mizen  mast  and  one  of  her  anchors, 
which  were  lost  in  a  gale  of  wind  the  2d  inst. 
when  her  main  top  mast  was  sprung  and  thrown 
on  her  beam  ends.  Letters  being  delivered  to 
him  by  the  Pilot  from  sundry  Gentlemen  of  this 
city,  informing  him  of  the  determined  resolution 
of  the  citizens  not  to  suffer  the  tea  on  board  of 


197 


his  ship  to  be  landed,  he  requested  the  Pilot  to 
bring  him  up  to  procure  necessaries  and  make  a 
protest,  but  they  would  not  do  it  till  leave  was 
obtained.  Early  the  next  morning  this  was  com- 
municated to  the  Committee,  and  it  appearing 
to  them  to  be  the  sense  of  the  city  that  such 
leave  should  be  granted  to  him,  the  ship  to  re- 
main at  the  Hook,  the  Pilot  was  immediately 
dispatched  to  bring  him  up.  This  intelligence 
we  immediately  communicated  to  the  Public  by 
an  hand  bill. 

"At  6  P.  M.  the  pilot  boat  returned  with  Capt. 
Lockyer  on  board,  and  although  the  people  had 
but  a  very  short  notice  of  it,  the  wharf  was 
crowded  with  the  Citizens,  to  see  the  man  whose 
arrival  they  long  and  impatiently  wished,  to  give 
them  an  opportunity  to  co-operate  with  the  other 
Colonies.  The  Committee  conducted  him  to 
the  house  of  the  Hon.  Henry  White,  Esq ;  one 
of  the  Consignees,  and  there  informed  Capt. 
Lockyer  that  it  was  the  sense  of  the  Citizens 
that  he  should  not  presume  to  go  near  the  Cus- 
tom House,  and  to  make  the  utmost  dispatch  in 
procuring  the  necessary  articles  he  wanted  for 
his  voyage.  To  this  he  answered,  '  That  as  the 
Consignees  would  not  receive  his  cargo,  he  would 
not  go  to  the  Custom-house,  and  would  make  all 
the  dispatch  he  could  to  leave  the  city.'  A  Com- 
mittee of  Observation  was  immediately  appointed 

198 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

to  go  down  in  a  sloop  to  the  Hook,  to  remain 
there  near  the  tea  ship  till  she  departs  for  Lon- 
don. 

"  Wednesday  night  arrived  Capt.  Lawrence, 
from  London,  who  confirmed  the  account  re- 
ceived from  Philadelphia,  of  Capt.  Chambers 
having  on  board  1 8  boxes  of  fine  tea,  but  could 
not  tell  who  was  the  Shipper,  or  to  whom  it  was 
addressed.  Thursday  the  Committee  interro- 
gated Capt.  Lawrence  relative  to  what  he  knew 
of  the  tea's  being  on  board  of  Captain  Cham- 
bers, when  he  shewed  them  a  memorandum  in 
his  pocket  book,  which  he  took  from  the  cocket 
in  the  middle  of  Capt.  Chambers's  file  of  papers 
in  the  Searcher's  Office  at  Gravesend,  corre- 
sponding with  the  advice  transmitted  from  Phil- 
adelphia, except  some  variation  in  the  mark. 
This  morning  the  following  hand  bill  was  dis- 
tributed : 

"  *  To  the  PUBLIC,  The  sense  of  the  city 
relative  to  the  landing  the  India  Company's  tea, 
being  signified  to  Capt.  Lockyer,  by  the  Com- 
mittee, nevertheless,  it  is  the  desire  of  a  number 
of  the  citizens,  that  at  his  departure  from  hence, 
he  should  see,  with  his  own  eyes,  their  detesta- 
tion of  the  measures  pursued  by  the  Ministry 
and  the  India  Company,  to  enslave  this  country. 
This  will  be  declared  by  the  convention  of  the 
people  at  his  departure  from  this  city;  which 

199 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

will  be  on  next  Saturday  morning  about  nine 
o'clock,  when  no  doubt,  every  friend  of  this 
country  will  attend.  The  bells  will  give  the  no- 
tice about  an  hour  before  he  embarks  from  Mur- 
ray's Wharf. 

"'  New-York,  April  2ist. 

" '  By  Order  of  the  Committee/ 

"  Friday  at  noon  Capt.  Chambers  came  into 
the  Hook;  the  Pilot  asked  him  if  he  had  any 
tea  on  board.  He  declared  he  had  none.  Two 
of  the  Committee  of  Observation  went  on  board 
of  Capt.  Chambers,  and  informed  him  of  the 
advices  received  of  his  having  tea  on  board, 
and  demanded  a  sight  of  all  his  cockets,  which 
was  given  them,  but  the  cocket  for  tea  was  not 
found  among  them,  nor  was  the  mark  or  num- 
ber on  his  manifest. 

"  About  4  P.  M.  the  ship  came  to  the  wharf, 
when  she  was  boarded  by  a  number  of  the  citi- 
zens, Capt.  Chambers  was  interrogated  relative 
to  his  having  the  tea  on  board,  but  he  still  de- 
nied it.  He  was  then  told  it  was  vain  to  deny 
it,  for  there  was  good  proof  of  its  being  on 
board;  for  it  would  be  found,  as  there  were 
Committees  appointed  to  open  every  package, 
and  that  he  had  better  be  open  and  candid  about 
it ;  and  demanded  the  cocket  for  the  tea ;  upon 
which  he  confessed  it  was  on  board,  and  deliv- 
ered the  cocket.  The  owners  and  the  Commit- 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

tee  immediately  met  at  Mr.  Francis's,  where 
Capt.  Chambers  was  ordered  to  attend.  Upon 
examining  him  who  was  the  shipper  and  owner 
of  the  tea,  he  declared  that  he  was  sole  owner 
of  it.  After  the  most  mature  deliberation,  it  was 
determined  to  communicate  the  whole  state  of 
the  matter  to  the  people,  who  were  convened 
near  the  ship ;  which  was  accordingly  done. 

"The  Mohawks  were  prepared  to  do  their 
duty  at  a  proper  hour,  but  the  body  of  the  peo- 
ple were  so  impatient,  that  before  it  arrived  a 
number  of  them  entered  the  ship,  about  8  P.  M. 
took  out  the  tea  which  was  at  hand,  broke  the 
cases,  and  started  their  contents  in  the  river, 
without  doing  any  damage  to  the  ship  or  cargo. 
Several  persons  of  reputation  were  placed  below 
to  keep  talley,  and  about  the  companion  to  pre- 
vent ill-disposed  persons  from  going  below  the 
deck.  At  10,  the  people  all  dispersed  in  good 
order,  but  in  great  wrath  against  the  Captain ; 
and  it  was  not  without  some  risque  of  his  life 
that  he  escaped.  Saturday  at  8  A.  M.  all  the 
bells  of  the  City  rang. 

"About  9,  the  greatest  number  of  people 
were  collected  at  and  near  the  Coffee  House 
that  was  ever  known  in  this  city.  At  a  quarter 
past  9  the  Committee  came  out  of  the  Coffee 
House  with  Capt.  Lockyer,  upon  which  the  band 
of  music  attending,  played  'God  save  the  King.' 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Immediately  there  was  a  call  for  Capt.  Cham- 
bers, Where  is  he  ?  where  is  he  ?  Capt.  Lockyer 
must  not  go  till  we  find  Capt.  Chambers  to  send 
him  with  the  tea  ship.  This  produced  marks 
of  fear  in  Capt.  Lockyer,  who  imagined  some 
mischief  was  intended  him  ;  but  upon  assurance 
being  given  him  to  the  contrary,  he  appeared 
composed.  The  Committee,  with  the  music, 
conducted  him  through  the  multitude  to  the  end 
of  Murray's  Wharf,  where  he  was  put  on  board 
the  pilot  boat,  and  wished  a  safe  passage;  upon 
which  the  multitude  gave  loud  huzzas,  and  many 
guns  were  fired,  expressive  of  their  joy  at  his  de- 
parture. The  Committee  of  Observation  at  the 
Hook  have  cognizance  of  him  till  a  fair  wind 
offers  for  his  departure  from  thence. 

"On  Sunday  night,  the  Committee  of  Ob- 
servation returned  from  the  Hook.  They  inform 
us,  that  the  sailors  of  the  tea  ship,  being  un- 
willing to  proceed  with  her  to  London,  made  a 
raft  of  spars  and  boards,  in  order  to  quit  the  ship 
with  the  tide  of  flood,  but  were  observed  by  the 
Captain,  and  being  aided  by  the  Committee,  who 
offered  their  assistance  to  him,  they  desisted  from 
their  project. — That  on  Sunday  at  10  A.  M.  the 
ship  and  the  sloop,  with  the  Committee,  weighed 
their  anchors  and  stood  to  sea;  and  at  2  p.  M. 
the  Pilot  boat  and  the  Committee's  sloop  left  her 
at  the  distance  of  three  leagues  from  the  Hook. 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

"With  Capt.  Lockyer,  in  the  ship  Nancy, 
went  passenger,  Capt.  James  Chambers." 

The  story  told  in  the  preceding  pages  ex- 
plains the  numerous  protests  uttered  at  home  and 
abroad  against  the  injustice  of  singling  out  Bos- 
ton for  punishment  for  her  action  in  taking  up 
the  gauntlet  deliberately  thrown  down  by  Gov- 
ernor Hutchinson.  It  also  justified  the  popular 
belief,  that  if  the  desire  evinced  by  Governor 
Tryon  of  New  York  and  other  royal  Governors 
to  avoid  the  issue,  which  the  compulsory  land- 
ing of  the  tea  would  have  forced,  had  been  dis- 
played at  Boston,  the  crisis  would  have  been 
averted,  and  the  necessity  for  the  destruction  of 
the  valuable  property  of  the  East  India  Company 
obviated, — the  consequences  of  which  act  were 
then  threatening  the  existence  of  a  people  whom 
many  in  England  looked  upon  as  merely  defend- 
ing the  principle  expressed  in  the  classic  proverb, 
"  Nothing  is  pleasant  without  true  Liberty," 
which  headed  the  Poets  Corner  in  the  Middlesex 
Journal  of  August  3Oth-September  ist,  1774. 

Nibil  est  jucundum  invita  sine  Libert  ate 

When  tyrants  on  the  Continent  were  spread, 

Men,  for  Liberty,  to  the  islands  fled, 

The   scene  now  changed;    from  those   they 

daily  fly 

To  seek  a  Continental  safer  sky. 

203 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

America  invites  us  to  her  arms, 

Freedom,    all    know,    contains    a    thousand 

charms, 

With  them  that  noble  spirit  is  not  broke, 
Gage  he  may  swagger,  Bernard  shape  the  yoke, 
Hutchinson  to  rage  a  nation  great  provoke, 
But  when  the  contest  comes,  the  mighty  odds 
Appear  with  slaves  contending  with  the  Gods. 

The  reception  which  the  news  of  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  received  in  New 
York  on  the  i2th  of  May,  the  meeting  called 
to  discuss  it  and  "the  printing  off  and  distribu- 
tion of  10,000  copies  of  the  Act  along  with  a 
copy  of  several  letters  from  England,"  indicated 
New  York's  interest  in  the  cause  of  Boston. 

On  the  1 6th  of  May,  the  merchants  met  for 
consultation  and,  in  order  to  prevent  any  radical 
action  being  taken  by  the  citizens  in  general, 
decided  to  present  to  the  people  at  large  the 
names  of  fifty  persons  to  act  as  a  Committee  of 
Correspondence  to  represent  New  York  in  the 
emergency  which  confronted  the  Colonies. 
Three  days  later  at  a  meeting  of  the  people  the 
list  was  formally  approved,  but  only  after  bitter 
opposition  from  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  for  the  com- 
position of  the  Committee  indicated  that  con- 
servatism would  control  its  actions.  At  this 
gathering  an  additional  name  was  added  and  the 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

appointees  were  thereafter  known  as  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty-one. 

In  the  meantime  Isaac  Sears  and  Alexander 
McDougall,  acting  for  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  had 
written  their  Boston  brethren  informing  them  of 
the  proposed  meeting  and  pledging  it  to  agree 
upon  "a  Non-importation  and  Non-exportation 
of  goods  to  Great  Britain."  In  this  they  were 
in  error,  for  the  Committee,  in  drawing  up  a 
letter  of  sympathy  for  Boston,  only  suggested 
that  this  step  should  be  discussed  at  a  meeting 
of  Deputies  from  all  the  Colonies,  being  mind- 
ful of  the  fact  that  New  York's  loyalty  to  the 
previous  Non-Importation  agreement  had  re- 
sulted in  the  diversion  of  much  of  her  trade  to 
other  Colonies,  where  the  agreement  was  but 
lightly  observed. 

The  moderation  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty- 
one  was  in  no  way  satisfactory  to  those  of  its 
members  who  were  appointed  from  the  Sons  of 
Liberty,  and  suspicion  became  rife  as  to  the  mo- 
tives of  their  inaction.  This  was  accentuated  by 
the  statements  made  by  the  English  newspapers 
that  General  Gage  had  told  Lord  North  that  he 
"  knew  of  many  Persons  of  Consequence  in  New 
York  who  could  easily  be  brought  over  to  sell 
their  Privileges  for  a  Pension  for  the  Crown." 

Announcements  that  the  Ministry  would  at- 
tempt to  introduce  into  America  the  methods  of 

105 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

bribery  and  corruption,  which  were  known  to 
be  sapping  the  life  blood  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment at  home,  frequently  appeared  in  the 
London  press  during  the  next  twelve  months  and 
furnished  the  satirists  fresh  ammunition  to  hurl 
at  the  Administration.  By  no  means  the  least 
interesting  of  these  effusions  was  that  which  was 
presented  to  the  public  by  the  London  Evening 
Post  under  the  heading  of, 

A   SONG 
By  the  TORY  MINISTRY 

To  the  tune  of  abegging  we  will  go,  will  go,  &c. 

i 
'Tis  money  makes  the  Member  vote, 

And  sanctify  our  ways; 
It  makes  the  Patriot  turn  his  coat, 
And  money  we  must  raise. 

And  a  taxing  we  will  go,  will  go,  &c. 

ii 
More  taxes  we  must  sure  impose, 

To  raise  the  Civil  List; 
Also  to  pay  our  ayes  and  noes, 
And  make  opposers  wist. 

And  a  taxing,  &c. 

in 

One  single  thing  untax'd  at  home, 
Old  England  could  not  shew; 

206 


THE   SONS  OF   LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

For  money  we  abroad  did  roam, 
And  thought  to  tax  the  New. 
And  a  taxing,  &c. 

IV 

The  pow'r  supreme  of  Parliament, 

Our  purpose  did  assist, 
And  taxing  laws  abroad  were  sent, 
Which  rebels  do  resist. 

And  a  taxing,  &c. 

v 
Shall  we  not  make  the  rascals  bend 

To  Britain's  supreme  power? 
The  sword  shall  we  not  to  them  send 
And  leaden  balls  a  shower? 

And  a  taxing,  &c. 

VI 

Boston  we  shall  in  ashes  lay, 

It  is  a  nest  a  knaves; 
We'll  make  them  soon  for  mercy  pray, 

Or  send  them  to  their  graves. 
And  a  taxing,  &c. 

VII 

But  second  thoughts  are  ever  best, 
And  lest  our  force  should  fail, 

What  fraud  can  do  we'll  make  a  test, 
And  see  what  bribes  avail. 

And  a  taxing,  &c. 

VIII 

Each  Colony,  we  will  propose, 
Shall  raise  an  ample  sum; 

207 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Which  well  applied,  under  the  rose, 
May  bribe  them — as  at  home. 
And  a  taxing,  &c. 

IX 

We'll  force  and  fraud  in  one  unite, 
To  bring  them  to  our  hands ; 

Then  lay  a  tax  on  the  sun's  light, 
And  King's  tax  on  their  lands. 
And  a  taxing,  &c. 

On  July  5th  an  advertisement  appeared  in  the 
streets  of  New  York  couched  in  "  mystic  and 
ambiguous  terms."  It  called  for  a  meeting  the 
next  day  in  the  Fields,  and  assigned  as  the  reason 
that  "  The  enemies  of  the  Liberty  of  America 
being  unwearied  in  misrepresenting  the  attach- 
ment of  the  inhabitants  of  this  city  to  the  com- 
mon cause  of  this  country  to  the  neighbouring 
colonies,  etc." 

The  response  thereto  was  a  numerous  gath- 
ering of  New  York's  citizens.  Its  chairman 
was  Alexander  McDougall,  one  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty-one,  who  after  calling  atten- 
tion to  "the  dangerous  tendency  of  the  numer- 
ous and  vile  acts  used  by  the  enemies  of  Amer- 
ica to  divide  and  distract  her  councils,  as  well  as 
the  misrepresentations  of  the  citizens  of  this 
Metropolis  in  this  interesting  and  alarming  state 
of  the  liberties  of  America,"  offered  a  series  of 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

resolutions  which  were  separately  voted  upon 
and  passed  unanimously.  Their  general  tenor 
indicated  the  strong  desire  of  the  citizens  to  put 
themselves  on  record  as  declaring  that  the  Bos- 
ton Port  Act  was  unconstitutional,  that  Boston 
was  suffering  in  a  common  cause  as  a  result  of 
the  attack  upon  her  liberty,  that  it  was  the  opin- 
ion of  the  meeting  that  "  if  the  principal  col- 
onies should  jointly  cease  trading  with  Great 
Britain  that  this  will  prove  the  salvation  of  Amer- 
ica," that  the  Deputies  who  should  represent  the 
colony  at  the  projected  Congress  be  instructed  to 
agree  for  the  city  upon  a  Non-Importation 
Agreement  to  remain  in  effect  until  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  be  repealed  and  the  grievances  of  Amer- 
ica be  redressed  and  that  their  representatives 
should  also  agree  to  all  other  measures  which  the 
Congress  shall  deem  best  to  adopt.  In  addition  it 
was  resolved  that  all  present  would  observe  any 
regulation  which  the  Congress  should  enact, 
that  a  subscription  be  immediately  started  to  re- 
lieve the  distresses  of  the  Bostonians,  and  finally 
that  the  city  Committee  of  Correspondence  be  in- 
structed to  use  their  utmost  endeavours  to  carry 
the  resolutions  into  effect. 

The  next  day  at  a  meeting  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  the  proceedings  of 
the  day  before,  which  evidently  had  been  de- 
signed to  throw  odium  upon  the  Committee, 

209 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

were  disavowed,  whereupon  eleven  of  its  mem- 
bers, among  whom  were  Sears,  McDougall  and 
Jacobus  Van  Zandt,  in  an  open  letter  to  the  peo- 
ple over  their  signatures,  handed  in  their  resig- 
nations. 

From  that  time  on,  however,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  became  more  alert 
and  kept  in  frequent  conference  with  the  Com- 
mittee of  the  Mechanics,  who  represented  the 
more  radical  element  of  the  city  and  to  whose 
influence  was  due  the  fact  that  the  New  York 
delegates  went  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia 
pledged  to  advocate  a  policy  of  Non-Importa- 
tion. 

Undoubtedly  the  loyalty  to  the  Administra- 
tion displayed  by  many  of  New  York's  most 
worthy  and  influential  citizens  arose  from  the 
fact  that  their  Colony  had  been  particularly  for- 
tunate in  having  for  Governors  men  who  pre- 
ferred to  conciliate  rather  than  to  offend.  The 
tale  of  the  swift  punishment  meted  out  by  the 
Crown  to  an  unfaithful  Executive  over  a  cen- 
tury and  a  half  before  was  frequently  cited  to 
show  the  beneficial  effects  of  justice,  as  well  as 
to  expose  the  canker  which  was  eating  away  the 
ties  which  had  hitherto  bound  the  Colonies  to 
Great  Britain. 

"  In  the  late  Queen  Ann's  reign,"  wrote  the 
editor  of  the  Middlesex  Journal  in  the  latter  part 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

of  September,  1 774,  "  when  Lord  Cornbury  was 
Governor  of  New  York,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  general  assembly  of  that  province 
to  examine  into  the  grievances  of  their  constitu- 
tion. This  committee  paying  due  attention  both 
to  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown,  and  the  lib- 
erty of  the  subject,  proceeded  to  draw  up  sev- 
eral noble  and  spirited  resolves,  which  were  ap- 
proved by  the  assembly  then  sitting ;  who  there- 
upon exhibited  a  complaint  to  her  Majesty, 
against  Lord  Cornbury's  haughty  and  oppressing 
government.  To  which  the  Queen  returned 
this  truly  gracious  answer :  '  I  have  heard  the 
cries  of  my  injured  subjects,  nor  will  I  counten- 
ance my  nearest  relation  in  oppressing  my  peo- 
ple.' Though  Lord  Cornbury  was  her  cousin, 
she  divested  him  of  his  commission  and  put 
Lord  Lovelace  in  his  place.  If  his  present  Maj- 
esty had  judged  as  wisely,  we  should  have  had 
no  American  disturbances." 

The  tidings  of  the  material  assistance  for- 
warded to  distressed  Boston  from  New  York,  of 
the  disinclination  of  her  people  to  contribute  to 
the  comfort  of  those  employed  in  carrying  out 
the  royal  commands  in  Boston,  and  of  her  ac- 
tion in  sending  Deputies  to  the  Congress  at  Phil- 
adelphia came  like  a  thunderbolt  to  the  Minis- 
try, for  New  York's  course,  in  the  years  imme- 
diately preceding,  had  fostered  the  belief  that 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

this  Colony  of  all  others  could  be  counted  on 
to  remain  submissive  to  the  King's  mandate. 
The  seriousness  of  the  situation  in  America  was 
at  last  apparent  to  all. 

As  instancing  the  attitude  of  New  York  and 
her  decision  to  stand  by  Boston  in  her  trouble  the 
English  press  had  noted  that  "  General  Gage 
sent  an  order  to  New  York  for  eight  hundred 
pair  of  blankets,  which  order  was  presented  to 
every  Merchant  in  town,  who  all  nobly  refused 
supplying  them,  returning  for  answer  '  that  they 
never  would  supply  any  article  for  the  benefit 
of  men  who  were  sent  as  enemies  to  their  coun- 
try.'  " 

That  there  was  no  such  unanimity  of  action 
as  was  attributed  to  the  New  York  merchants, 
may  be  deduced  from  the  perusal  of  a  Broadside 
dated  October  ist,  1774,  in  which  Isaac  Sears 
and  Anthony  Griffiths  and  others  of  the  Com- 
mittee, who  had  been  appointed  "  to  call  upon 
sundry  persons  held  to  be  purchasing  and  ship- 
ping goods  for  the  supply  of  the  troops  in 
Boston,"  made  a  written  denial  that  they  had 
"  arbitrarily  censured  and  threatened  several 
worthy  and  respected  persons  among  '  our  Fel- 
low Citizens/  '  The  Broadside  further  certi- 
fied over  the  signatures  of  John  Lamb,  Francis 
Van  Dyke  and  others  that  at  the  meeting  at 
which  the  Committee  was  appointed  "  no  in- 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY  IN   NEW  YORK 

structions  were  charged  the  committee  to  threat- 
en the  gentlemen  to  whom  they  were  sent." 

In  the  preceding  pages  frequent  reference 
has  been  made  to  the  practice  of  the  Sons  of 
Liberty  of  issuing  "  Cards  "  and  "  Addresses  to 
the  Public,"  which  circulated  throughout  the 
city  and  surrounding  towns  and  thereby  dissem- 
inated information  of  their  calls  for  meetings, 
warnings  against  acts  considered  detrimental  to 
the  general  welfare  of  the  Colonies,  and  addresses 
upon  topics  which  were  then  engrossing  the  pub- 
lic attention. 

On  October  3d,  1774,  another  of  these 
cards  made  its  appearance  in  the  streets  of  New 
York,  was  reprinted  freely  in  various  English 
newspapers  early  in  the  following  January,  and 
thereby  furnished  our  cartoonist  with  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  droll  incident  which  he  utilized  to 
portray,  in  a  humourous  manner,  the  attitude 
assumed  by  the  people  living  in  the  Colonies 
towards  those  actively  engaged  in  the  royal  ser- 
vice. The  extract  printed  below,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Kentish  Gazette  of  January  7th, 
1775,  tells  the  story  of  the  cartoon  issued  14 
Feb.,  1775,  a  reproduction  of  which  may  be  seen 
on  page  215. 

"  The  following  card,  copies  of  which  were 
circulated  at  New  York,  is  too  singular  not  to 
merit  insertion: 


213 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

"A  Card, 

"New  York,  Oct.  3rd. 

"  The  thanks  of  the  worthy  sons  of  liberty  in 
solemn  Congress  assembled,  were  this  night  voted 
and  unanimously  allowed  to  be  justly  due  to  Mr. 
Jacob  Vredenburgh,  Barber,  for  hisjirm  spirited 
and  patriotic  conduct,  in  refusing  to  complete  an 
operation,  vulgarly  called  Shaving,  which  he  had 
begun  on  the  face  of  Captain  John  Crozer,  Com- 
mander of  the  Empress  of  Russia,  one  of  his 
Majesty's  transports,  now  lying  in  the  river,  but 
most  fortunately  and  providentially  was  informed 
of  the  identity  of  the  gentleman's  person,  when 
he  had  about  half  finished  the  job. 

"  It  is  most  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  all 
Gentlemen  of  the  Razor  will  follow  this  wise, 
prudent,  interesting  and  praiseworthy  example, 
so  steadily,  that  every  person  who  pays  due  alle- 
giance to  his  Majesty,  and  wishes  Peace,  Hap- 
piness, and  Unanimity  to  the  Colonies,  may  have 
his  beard  grow  as  long  as  ever  was  King  Ne- 
buchadnezzar's." 

The  main  feature  of  the  scene,  the  ejectment 
of  the  half-shaven  customer,  after  the  disclos- 
ure of  his  identity  by  the  letter  addressed  "  To 
Cap"  Crozer."  (which  may  be  seen  in  the  hands  of 
the  messenger),  humourously  delineated  Ameri- 
ca's determination  to  refrain  from  contributing 
to  the  comfort  of  those  in  the  royal  service. 

*»4 


Plate  III  /v' 


'lie  1'ATRIOTU'K  BARBER  ol  NKWYORK.orthe  I'APTAIX  intlur  SUJJS. 

<i'6U*t  UiFti  sm^tt  /tmrrtes  r.and 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW   YORK 

The  wording  of  the  title  "The  PATRIOTICK 
BARBER  of  NEW  YORK,  or  the  CAPTAIN  in  the 
SUDS"  and  the  accompanying  verse, 

Then  Patriot  grand,  maintain  thy  Stand, 
And  whilst  thou  sav'st  Americ's  Land, 

Preserve  the  Golden  Rule; 
Forbid  the  Captains  there  to  roam, 
Half  shave  them  first,  then  send  yem  home, 

Objects  of  ridicule. 

evidence  a  London  print-seller's  conviction  that 
America's  stand  in  behalf  of  Boston  was  receiv- 
ing the  approval  of  the  British  public. 

The  shop  represented  was  located  on  Barclay 
Street,  as  indicated  by  the  name  over  the  door- 
way. The  wall  decorations,  mezzotint  portraits 
of  Pitt  and  Camden,  and  the  Broadsides  con- 
taining a  recent  speech  by  Lord  Chatham,  and 
the  "Articles  of  Association,"  give  evidence  of 
the  artist's  belief  that  the  Sons  of  Liberty  in 
New  York  were  only  contending  for  that  justice 
for  Boston  demanded  by  statesmen  on  both  sides 
of  the  water.  The  wig  boxes,  which  may  be  seen 
among  the  furnishings  of  this  well-appointed 
barber  shop,  are  the  extraordinary  feature  of  the 
cartoon,  labelled,  as  they  are,  with  twelve  names 
of  the  patrons  of  this  rabidly  patriotic  tonsorial 
artist,  Jacob  Vredenburgh. 

The  selection  of  the  names  was  a  remarkable 


217 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


one,  as  diligent  search  through,  not  only  con- 
temporary literature  but  also  subsequent  histori- 
cal writings  upon  these  Sons  of  Liberty,  fails  to 
disclose  the  source  whence  the  list  was  com- 
piled. Only  by  tracing  the  later  records  of  cer- 
tain of  the  personages  here  named  can  the  as- 
sumption be  made  that  all  of  those  here  inscribed 
were  either  members  of  the  organization  whose 
gathering-place  is  here  pictured,  or  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  it. 

All  classes  of  society  were  represented,  mer- 
chants, mechanics,  lawyers,  artisans  and  petty 
tradesmen.  Some  of  the  names,  such  as  those  of 
Alexander  M'Dugell  (McDougall),  John  Lamb 
and  Isaac  Sears,  belonged  to  the  most  active  pa- 
triot leaders  in  New  York  and  could  well  have 
been  obtained  from  almost  any  record  of  the 
townsmen's  protest  against  the  encroachment  on 
their  rights. 

During  the  previous  four  years  no  personage 
had  figured  more  prominently  in  the  colonial 
eye  than  Alexander  McDougall,  "  the  American 
Wilkes,"  who  acquired  this  title  by  his  impris- 
onment for  publishing  an  anonymous  pamphlet 
addressed  "  To  the  Betrayed  Inhabitants  of  the 
City  and  Colony  of  New-York,"  in  which  the 
Assembly  of  New  York  were  attacked  for  dis- 
regarding the  example  of  refusal  set  by  their 
brothers  in  Massachusetts-Bay  and  South  Caro- 


THE   SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

lina,  and  ignominiously  acceding  to  the  request 
of  their  Governor  in  voting  supplies  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  royal  troops  stationed  among 
them.  Early  in  the  next  year  the  authorship  of 
this  was  traced  to  McDougall,  who  was  arrested, 
and,  after  refusing  to  give  bail,  though  possessed 
of  ample  means,  was  imprisoned  for  thirteen 
months  in  the  New  Jail,  a  view  of  which,  as  it 
appeared  before  being  remodelled  for  use  as  the 
Hall  of  Records,  ornaments  the  initial  letter  of 
this  chapter.  The  story  of  McDougall's  sojourn 
there  needs  no  repetition  here. 

Two  of  the  others,  Anthony  Griffiths  and 
Francis  Van-Dyke,  might  have  been  secured 
from  the  Broadside  mentioned  on  page  212, 
or  from  other  documents  of  a  similar  nature,  for 
their  energy  was  especially  noteworthy  when 
any  policy  of  intimidation  was  required. 

No  trace  can  be  found  of  the  membership 
of  Cornelius  Low  the  big  in  the  Sons  of  Liberty. 
This  name  seems  to  have  been  a  facetious  desig- 
nation of  the  elderly,  well-to-do  merchant  Cor- 
nelius P.  Low,  who,  in  1759,  had  fitted  out  pri- 
vateers to  prey  upon  the  enemy's  commerce. 
The  inference  can  be  drawn  that  he  was  strongly 
in  sympathy  with  the  organization,  if  not  actu- 
ally a  member  thereof,  from  the  fact  that  his 
name  appears  among  those  constituting  the 
"  Committee  of  One  Hundred,"  appointed  to 

219 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

take  charge  of  the  administration  of  local  affairs 
just  after  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington 
reached  the  city  of  New  York.  That  the  owner 
of  the  next  box,  Abraham  Livingston,  if  not 
openly  active  in  political  circles,  was  loyal  to  the 
cause  of  the  Colonies,  is  proven  by  his  subse- 
quent rank  of  Captain  in  Marinus  Willett's 
"Regiment  of  the  Line"  and  his  appointment 
as  Commissary  by  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
New  York,  and  also  by  the  fact  that  in  1 776  he 
received  the  contract  for  the  victualling  of  the 
New  York  troops. 

In  inscribing  the  name  of  Bleck  "Jobnno  an 
error  manifestly  crept  in,  as  no  record  appears 
of  any  individual  thus  designated.  There  can 
be  little  doubt,  however,  of  the  personage  re- 
ferred to  being  one  John  Blagge,  a  strenuous 
patriot,  the  popular  Coroner  of  the  town  at  the 
time,  and  later  on  an  Alderman  under  the  regime 
of  the  "  Committee  of  One  Hundred."  The 
mistake  can  easily  be  accounted  for  by  phonetic 
spelling  and  recourse  to  a  nickname. 

In  the  enrolling  of  William  Lugg  among  these 
Sons  of  Liberty  confirmation  is  also  lacking,  the 
nearest  name  recorded  being  that  of  one  Charles 
Lugg,  who  appeared  in  the  list  of  Freemen  of 
the  City  as  having  obtained  his  papers  in  1757, 
and  as  being  a  rigger  by  occupation,  a  class  who 
were  among  the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  of 


THE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY   IN   NEW  YORK 

the  Sons   of  Liberty,  especially  when  any  dis- 
play of  force  was  demanded. 

The  last  three  names  were  those  of  influen- 
tial merchants.  Of  these  Jacobus  Vn  Zandt 
might  be  classed  as  among  the  most  radical  and 
prominent  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  for  his  activi- 
ties in  the  cause  of  his  country  had  not  only 
been  of  long  duration  but  also  continued  for 
many  years  thereafter,  as  the  records  show  that 
he  served  on  the  "  Committee  of  One  Hundred  " 
and  represented  New  York  in  the  Provincial 
Congress  throughout  the  Revolution.  The  next 
name  cl  Broome  can  be  identified  as  belonging  to 
Samuel  Broome,  the  Captain  of  the  "  Union  " 
Independent  Company,  whose  constant  drillings 
on  the  Common  betokened  their  determination 
to  be  prepared  for  any  emergency.  That  of 
Welle  ( Walter]  Franklin  belonged  to  a  respected 
citizen  and  one  devoted  to  his  country,  who  had 
acted  as  one  of  the  "  Committee  of  Inspection 
against  Non-Importation  "  during  the  period  of 
the  last  Non-Importation  Agreement,  at  a  time 
when  ruin  and  bankruptcy  stared  commercial 
circles  in  New  York  in  the  face. 

The  assumption  may  safely  be  made  that  the 
above-mentioned  formidable  array  of  names,  ap- 
parently sanctioning  the  indignity  put  upon  a 
King's  captain,  was  not  selected  at  random — 
including,  as  it  did,  names  well  known  both  in 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Whitehall  and  the  counting-rooms  of  London — 
some  of  which,  McDougall,  Lamb,  Sears,  Liv- 
ingston, Broome  and  Griffiths  were  afterwards 
inscribed  upon  the  roll  of  honour  of  the  defend- 
ers of  our  country ;  others,  Sears,  Blagge,  Grif- 
fiths, Broome  and  Van  Zandt  appearing  ten  years 
later  among  the  forty  signers  of  the  petition  for 
a  new  charter  for  their  city's  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, and  thus  becoming  enrolled  upon  the  list 
of  those  who  contributed  largely  to  our  nation's 
commercial  supremacy. 


V 

VIRGINIA  DEFIES  PARLIAMENT 

AND    SUPPORTS 

BOSTON 


VIRGINIA    DEFIES    PARLIAMENT  AND 
SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

IRGINIA'S  record  during  the 
previous  ten  years  gave  ample 
assurance  to  troubled  Boston 
that  the  men  of  this  great 
Southern  Colony  would  gladly 
and  vigourously  rally  to  her  as- 
sistance. No  Colony  was  known  to  have  been 
more  quick  to  assert  itself  against  the  Parliamen- 
tary infringements  upon  the  liberties  of  the  Colo- 
nies than  Virginia,  although  peopled  largely  by 
men  of  Cavalier  descent  whose  religious  ties  were 
those  of  the  Church  of  England  and  who,  fav- 
oured by  climate  and  soil,  had  succeeded  in  ac- 
cumulating wealth,  with  its  attendant  luxuries,  to 
a  degree  impossible  of  attainment  by  those  who 

2*5 


THE   BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

had  settled  on  the  less  fertile  shores,  and  in  the 
more  rugged  climate  of  the  northern  Colonies. 

Her  people's  claim  of  exemption  from  Par- 
liamentary taxation  had  long  been  based  upon 
the  declaration  made  by  Charles  II,  in  1676, 
that  "  taxes  ought  not  to  be  laid  on  the  inhabi- 
tants and  proprietors  of  the  Colonies,  but  by  the 
common  consent,"  and  the  legend  on  the  seal  of 
the  Colony,  "  EN  DAT  VIRGINIA  QUARTAM," 
(BEHOLD  VIRGINIA  GIVES  THE  FOURTH  [CROWN]  ), 
was  constantly  cited  by  her  leaders  as  proving  that 
from  her  early  days  Virginia  had  been  considered 
a  component  part  of  the  British  Kingdom  and 
her  people  thereby  entitled  to  all  the  privileges 
of  British  citizenship. 

The  Virginians  were  justly  proud  of  their 
seal,  for  it  had  been  presented  to  them  by  Charles 
II,  upon  the  Restoration  of  the  Monarchy,  in 
recognition  of  Virginia's  loyalty  to  the  cause  of 
the  Stuarts.  It  originally  consisted  of  an  escutch- 
eon, quartered  with  the  arms  of  the  Stuarts  sup- 
ported by  two  knights  in  armour,  was  crested  by  a 
long-haired  queen,  and  bore  the  legend  "  EN  DAT 
VIRGINIA  QUINTUM."  Upon  the  union  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  the  seal  which  appears  at  the 
head  of  this  chapter  was  substituted,  the  design 
being  taken  from  a  crude  type  metal  engraving 
which  had  long  adorned  the  first  page  of  their 
semi-weekly  newspaper,  The  Virginia  Gazette, 

226 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

published  at  Williamsburg.  The  changes  from 
the  original  seal  were  caused  by  the  substitution 
of  the  arms  of  the  Georges  for  those  of  the  Stu- 
arts, and  the  word  "  QUARTAM  "  for  "  QUINTUM  " 
in  the  legend;  the  four  crowns  thus  officially 
recognized  as  composing  the  Kingdom  being 
those  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  France  and  Vir- 
ginia. 

In  the  year  1 764  when  the  news  of  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Act  of  1 764  and  of  the  proposal  for 
a  Stamp  Tax  reached  Williamsburg,  Virginia  at 
once  formally  petitioned  the  King,  through  her 
Council  and  House  of  Burgesses,  entreating  him 
to  "  protect  your  people  of  this  Colony  in  the 
enjoyment  of  their  ancient  and  inalienable  right 
to  be  governed  by  such  laws  respecting  their  in- 
ternal policy  and  taxation  as  are  derived  from 
their  own  consent — a  right,  which  as  men  and  as 
descendants  of  Britons  they  have  ever  quietly 
possessed  since  by  royal  permission  and  encour- 
agement they  left  the  mother  kingdom  to  extend 
its  commerce  and  dominion." 

Virginia  at  the  same  time  sent  a  strong  re- 
monstrance to  the  House  of  Commons  protesting 
against  the  violation  of  established  rights,  and  ex- 
pressing the  hope  "  that  the  Commons  will  not 
prosecute  a  measure  which  those  who  suffer  under 
it  could  not  but  look  upon  as  fitter  for  exiles 
driven  from  their  native  country  after  ignomin- 

2*7 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

iously  forfeiting  its  favour  and  protection,  than  for 
the  posterity  of  loyal  Britons,  that  the  exercise 
of  such  constitutional  power,  even  in  this  remote 
corner,  might  be  dangerous  in  its  example."  A 
petition,  offered  by  Montagu,  the  Virginia  agent, 
presented  in  behalf  of  Virginia  by  Sir  William 
Meredith,  and  strongly  supported  by  Conway, 
the  House  refused  to  receive.  Less  than  forty 
members  voted  in  its  favour,  so  unanimous  was 
then  the  feeling  that  the  Colonies  should  assist 
the  Exchequer  in  maintaining  the  royal  forces 
in  America. 

Then  came  the  Stamp  Act,  the  story  of  which 
has  been  told  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  volume. 
In  the  following  June,  the  flame  of  revolt  then 
kindling  in  the  Colonies  was  fanned  by  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions,  all  six  of  which  were  printed 
in  the  Colonial  press  as  having  been  passed  by 
the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  on  May  3oth. 

The  text  of  the  resolutions,  which  appeared 
in  the  London  Chronicle  of  October  i5th—  i/th, 
1765,  has  been  selected  for  reprinting  here,  as  it 
correctly  noted  that  the  last  two  resolves  were 
acted  upon  only  by  the  House  sitting  as  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Whole,  and  not  passed  by  it  when 
in  legislative  session.  It  was  of  little  moment 
that  the  last  two  resolutions  failed  of  passage,  for 
the  other  Colonies  accepted  the  entire  six  as 
Virginia's  challenge  to  Parliament. 

228 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

"  Williamsburgh  in  Virginia,  August  22. 

"  The  following  are  the  resolutions  the  House 
of  Burgesses  are  come  to  very  lately,  with  respect 
to  the  Stamp-duty,  immediately  on  the  receipt 
of  a  copy  of  the  act  of  parliament  from  England, 
on  which  the  Governor  dissolved  the  assembly 

"  WHEREAS,  the  Hon.  ***** 
[House]  of  *  *  *  [Commons]  in  England,  have 
of  late  drawn  into  question  how  far  the  General 
Assembly  of  this  colony  hath  power  to  enact 
laws  for  laying  of  taxes  and  imposing  duties, 
payable  by  the  people  of  This  his  Majesty's  most 
ancient  colony:  for  settling  and  ascertaining  the 
same  to  all  future  times,  the  House  of  Burgesses 
of  this  present  General  Assembly  have  come  to 
the  following  resolutions  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  first  adventurers,  settlers 
of  This  his  Majesty's  colony  and  dominion  of 
Virginia,  brought  with  them,  and  transmitted  to 
their  posterity,  and  all  other  his  Majesty's  sub- 
jects since  inhabiting  in  this  his  Majesty's  said 
colony,  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  that 
have  at  any  time  been  held,  enjoyed  and  pos- 
sessed by  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 

"Resolved,  That  by  the  two  royal  charters, 
granted  by  King  James  the  First,  the  colonists 
aforesaid  are  declared  entitled  to  all  privileges  and 
immunities  of  faithful  Liege  and  natural  born 
subjects,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  as  if  they  had 

229 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

been  abiding,  and  born  within  the  realm  of  Eng- 
land. 

"  Resolved,  That  his  Majesty's  liege  people 
of  This  his  most  ancient  colony,  have  enjoyed 
the  right  of  being  thus  governed  by  their  own 
Assembly  in  the  article  of  taxes,  and  internal  po- 
lice, and  that  the  same  have  never  been  forfeited, 
or  any  other  way  yielded  up,  but  have  been  con- 
stantly recognized  by  the  King  and  people  of 
Great  Britain. 

"  Resolved,  therefore,  That  the  general  As- 
sembly of  this  colony,  together  with  his  Majesty 
or  his  Substitute,  have  in  their  representative  ca- 
pacity the  only  exclusive  right  and  power  to  lay 
taxes  and  impositions  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
this  colony;  and  that  every  attempt  to  vest  such 
a  power  in  any  other  person  or  persons  whatso- 
ever, other  than  the  General  Assembly  aforesaid, 
is  illegal,  unconstitutional,  and  unjust,  and  has  a 
manifest  tendency  to  destroy  British,  as  well  as 
American  freedom. 

"The  following  RESOLVES  were  not  passed,  only 
drawn  up  by  the  Committee. 

"  Resolved,  That  his  Majesty's  liege  people, 
the  inhabitants  of  this  Colony,  are  not  bound  to 
yield  obedience  to  any  law  or  ordinance  whatever, 
designed  to  impose  any  taxation  whatever  upon 
them,  other  than  the  laws  or  ordinance  of  the 
General  Assembly  aforesaid: 

130 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

"  Resolved,  That  any  person  who  shall,  by 
speaking  or  writing,  maintain  that  any  person  or 
persons,  other  than  the  General  Assembly  of  this 
colony,  have  any  right  or  power  to  impose  or  lay 
any  taxation  whatsoever  on  the  people  here,  shall 
be  deemed  an  enemy  to  This  his  Majesty's 
colony." 

These  resolutions  introduced  and  carried 
through  by  Patrick  Henry,  until  then  almost 
unknown  at  the  Capital,  were  opposed  by  many 
of  the  more  conservative  leaders,  yet  such  was  the 
persuasive  eloquence  of  the  young  orator,  that 
after  two  days  of  debate  these  defiant  resolves 
were  passed  and  given  to  the  world  as  Virginia's 
reply  to  Parliament. 

The  reception  accorded  at  Hampton  and 
Williamsburg  to  the  bearer  of  the  stamps,  was 
no  less  hearty  than  elsewhere,  and  little  persua- 
sion was  needed  to  secure  a  promise  from  Col. 
George  Mercer,  who  had  undertaken  to  carry 
the  stamps  to  Virginia,  that  he  would  not  assist 
in  the  execution  of  the  malodourous  Act  without 
the  consent  of  the  Assembly.  The  judiciary 
boldly  opposed  its  enforcement  and  the  Court 
of  Northampton,  Va.  on  February  8th,  1766, 
"  unanimously  declared  it  to  be  their  opinion 
that  the  said  act  did  not  bind,  affect,  or  concern 
the  inhabitants  of  this  colony  inasmuch  as  they 
conceive  the  same  to  be  unconstitutional." 


231 


THE    BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

The  Stamp  Act  and  the  Acts  of  1767  which 
followed  were  as  bitterly  condemned,  and  the 
Non-Importation  Associations  resulting  there- 
from, were  as  enthusiastically  supported  in  Vir- 
ginia as  in  any  of  the  other  Colonies. 

When,  however,  in  1769  the  news  reached 
Virginia  that  both  houses  of  Parliament  had  sent 
an  address  to  the  King,  in  which  they  expressed 
their  satisfaction  with  the  measures  he  had  taken 
to  maintain  the  royal  authority  in  Massachusetts, 
and  further  besought  his  Majesty  to  obtain 
through  the  Governor  of  that  colony  all  infor- 
mation possible  concerning  those  persons  who 
had  been  guilty  of  treasonable  practice,  with  a 
view  of  transporting  them  to  England  for  trial, 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  resenting  the  abrogation 
of  their  fellow  colonists'  inalienable  right  of  trial 
by  a  jury  at  home,  boldly  passed  the  following 
resolution  which  asserted,  "  their  exclusive  right 
to  tax  their  constituents,  and  their  right  to  peti- 
tion their  sovereign  for  redress  of  grievances,  and 
the  lawfulness  of  procuring  the  concurrence  of 
the  other  colonies  in  praying  for  the  royal  inter- 
position, in  favour  of  the  violated  rights  of  Amer- 
ica :  and  that  all  trials  for  treason,  or  for  any  crime 
whatsoever,  committed  in  that  colony,  ought  to 
be  before  his  majesty's  courts,  within  the  said 
colony  ;  and  that  the  seizing  any  person  residing 
in  the  said  colony,  suspected  of  any  crime  what- 

132 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

soever,  committed  therein,  and  sending  such  per- 
son to  places  beyond  the  sea  to  be  tried,  was 
highly  derogatory  of  the  rights  of  British  sub- 
jects." 

For  this  rebellious  action  their  Governor,  the 
already  dearly  beloved  Lord  Botetourt,  who,  since 
his  appointment  in  1768,  had  aimed  to  serve  truly 
both  King  and  Colony,  was  obliged  to  dissolve 
the  body. 

The  following  paragraph  which  appeared  in 
the  London  Chronicle Tor  November  3oth-Decem- 
ber  2nd,  1769,  gave  to  its  readers  a  forcible  but 
dispassionate  description  of  the  political  situation 
in  the  colony. 

"  A  letter  from  Virginia  dated  September  1 4th 
says,  'Lord  Botetourt,  notwithstanding  all  his 
complacency,  and  a  heart,  I  really  believe,  warm 
for  the  happiness  of  the  country  over  which  he 
presides,  leads  no  very  easy  life.  He  has  tried 
every  method,  consistent  with  his  duty,  to  heal 
differences;  but  the  majority  are  obstinate.  It 
should  seem  that  he  has  had  some  favourable  in- 
structions from  home,  by  his  calling  a  new  as- 
sembly so  soon  after  the  dissolution  of  the  last: 
The  members  are  to  meet  the  7th  of  November 
next ;  but  I  fear  they  are  in  no  disposition  to  alter 
their  opinions.  I  cannot  with  pleasure  enter 
upon  giving  you  any  further  news  from  this  coun- 
try; it  is  a  distracted  subject;  and  the  confusions 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

at  home,  joined  to  those  of  the  American  Colo- 
nies, are  enough  to  make  every  thinking  man 
tremble.'  ' 

The  same  newspaper  two  weeks  later,  in  the 
following  lines  noted  the  remarkable  unanimity 
with  which  the  Virginians  had  indorsed  the  ac- 
tion of  their  House  of  Burgesses,  a  unanimity 
which  had  hitherto  existed  in  no  other  colony. 
"  The  elections  in  Virginia  are  over  and  the  same 
Assemblymen  are  returned.  This,  it  is  said,  is 
the  only  Assembly  in  that  colony  that  was  ever 
returned  by  a  unanimity  of  votes,  and  without  one 
person  endeavouring,  in  so  large  a  province,  to 
set  up  an  opposition  to  any  of  the  Candidates." 

The  men  of  the  House  meeting  after  the  Dis- 
solution, as  individuals,  then  again  formed  their 
Non-Importation  Associations. 

The  vote  of  confidence  by  the  Lords  and 
Commons  previously  referred  to  was  most  pleas- 
ing to  the  King,  yet  the  necessity  of  calming  the 
storm  of  indignation  in  America  was  apparent  to 
his  royal  advisers.  On  the  I4th  of  May,  1769, 
Lord  Hillsborough,  the  Secretary  for  the  Colo- 
nies, wrote  to  Lord  Botetourt  as  follows :  "  I  can 
take  upon  me  to  assure  you,  notwithstanding  in- 
formations to  the  contrary,  from  men,  with  fac- 
tious and  seditious  views,  that  his  Majesty's  pres- 
ent administration  have  at  no  time  entertained  a 
design  to  propose  to  parliament,  to  lay  any  farther 

234 


VIRGINIA  SUPPORTS  BOSTON 

taxes  upon  America,  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
a  revenue,  and  that  it  is  at  present  their  intention 
to  propose  in  the  next  session  of  parliament,  to 
take  off  the  duties  upon  glass,  paper,  and  colours, 
upon  consideration  of  such  duties  having  been  laid 
contrary  to  the  true  principles  of  commerce." 
Lord  Botetourt  was  further  informed  that  "  his 
Majesty  relied  upon  his  prudence  and  fidelity,  to 
make  such  an  explanation  of  his  Majesty's  meas- 
ures as  would  tend  to  remove  prejudices,  and  to 
re-establish  mutual  confidence  and  affection  be- 
tween the  Mother  Country  and  the  colonies." 

Upon  receipt  of  this  letter  from  the  Earl  of 
Hillsborough,  the  Governor,  whose  one  idea  was 
to  unite  King  and  Colony,  and  who  by  his  sym- 
pathy with  those  whom  he  was  sent  to  govern, 
had  won  their  affection,  addressed  the  members 
of  the  House  of  Burgesses  in  the  following 
words : 

"  I  think  myself  peculiarly  fortunate  to  be  able 
to  inform  you,  that,  in  a  letter  dated  May  the 
i  3th,  I  have  been  assured  by  the  Earl  of  Hills- 
borough,  that  his  Majesty's  present  administra- 
tion have  at  no  time  entertained  a  design  to  pro- 
pose to  Parliament  to  lay  any  further  taxes  upon 
America  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue,  and 
that  it  is  their  intention  to  propose  in  the  next 
Session  of  Parliament,  to  take  off  the  duties  upon 
glass,  papers  and  colours,  upon  consideration  of 

135 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

such  duties  having  been  laid,  contrary  to  the  true 
principles  of  commerce." 

"It  may  possibly  be  objected,  that,  as  his 
Majesty's  present  administration  are  not  immor- 
tal, their  successors  may  be  inclined  to  attempt 
to  undo  what  the  present  ministers  shall  have  at- 
tempted to  perform,  and  to  that  objection  I  can 
give  but  this  answer,  that  it  is  my  firm  opinion, 
that  the  plan  I  have  stated  to  you,  will  certainly 
take  place,  and  that  it  will  never  be  departed 
from  ;  and  so  determined  am  I  forever  to  abide 
by  it,  that  I  will  be  content  to  be  declared  in- 
famous, if  I  do  not  to  the  last  hour  of  my  life,  at 
all  times,  in  all  places,  and  upon  all  occasions, 
exert  every  power,  with  which  I  either  am  or 
ever  shall  be  legally  invested,  in  order  to  obtain 
and  maintain  for  the  Continent  of  America,  that 
satisfaction,  which  I  have  been  authorized  to 
promise  this  day,  by  the  confidential  servants  of 
our  Gracious  Sovereign,  who,  to  my  certain 
knowledge,  rates  his  honour  so  high,  that  he 
would  rather  part  with  his  crown,  than  preserve 
it  by  deceit." 

The  pledges  above  given  were  greeted  with 
enthusiasm  and  the  Assembly  in  the  same  con- 
ciliatory spirit  made  the  following  loyal  reply : 

"  We  are  sure  our  most  gracious  sovereign, 
under  whatever  changes  may  happen  in  his  con- 
fidential servants,  will  remain  immutable  in  the 

*36 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

ways  of  truth  and  justice,  and  that  he  is  incapa- 
ble of  deceiving  his  faithful  subjects;  and  we 
esteem  your  lordship's  information  not  only  as 
warranted,  but  even  sanctified  by  the  royal 
word." 

To  Lord  Botetourt's  personal  character  is  due 
the  fact  that  the  Virginians,  firmly  persuaded  that 
their  rights  were  being  earnestly  protected  by 
their  Executive,  returned  to  their  accustomed 
pursuits  and  gave  little  thought  to  the  bickerings 
and  disputes  which  were  constantly  taking  place 
between  the  governors  and  their  people  in  the 
other  Colonies. 

In  1 770,  after  two  years'  residence  in  Wil- 
liamsburg  death  ruthlessly  snatched  from  a  ca- 
reer of  usefulness  this  excellent  governor  and  by 
the  same  stroke  deprived  the  King  of  a  truly  loyal 
servant.  Unlike  other  Executives  in  the  Colo- 
nies, who  by  wilfully  misrepresenting  the  actions 
of  their  people  widened  the  breach  between  them 
and  Parliament,  Lord  Botetourt  served  his  master 
best  by  smoothing  away  differences  which  had 
arisen  and  thus  restored  "  tranquillity  and  happi- 
ness" to  Virginia. 

American  history,  while  denouncing  the  Ber- 
nards, Hutchinsons  and  other  appointees  of  the 
King  for  tactics  which  increased  the  bitterness 
then  existing  between  America  and  the  Admin- 
istration, strangely  neglects  to  give  credit  to  this 

237 


THE    BOSTON   PORT    BILL 

worthy  English  nobleman  for  his  efforts  in  be- 
half of  harmony. 

Norborne  Berkeley,  Baron  De  Botetourt, 
(whose  name  may  be  seen  upon  the  statue  pic- 
tured in  the  engraving  heading  this  chapter  and 
in  the  cartoon  reproduced  on  page  277)  was  little 
known  to  those  whom  he  was  sent  to  govern. 
He  was  appointed  to  succeed  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst 
to  carry  out  the  new  and  conciliatory  policy  of 
the  Crown,  of  having  the  colonial  governors  re- 
side in  the  colonies,  and  was  given  the  title  of 
"  His  Majesty's  Lieutenant,  Governor  General, 
and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Colony  and 
Dominion  of  Virginia,  and  Vice-Admiral  of  the 
Same."  He  was  described  by  the  opposition  Lon- 
don papers  as  a  sycophant  and  a  puppet  of  Lord 
Hillsborough,  the  much  detested  Secretary  for 
the  Colonies,  yet  the  pacific  attitude  and  tactful- 
ness  displayed  by  him  in  his  treatment  of  his  peo- 
ple and  his  openly  expressed  sympathy  for  them 
in  their  trouble,  soon  changed  suspicion  into  ad- 
miration, and  bid  fair  to  heal  the  breach  which 
had  reached  such  alarming  proportions. 

An  abstract  from  a  letter*  dated  London,  Au- 
gust 1 6th,  1768,  written  by  Col.  George  Mercer 
of  Virginia  to  one  of  his  brothers  gives  some  in- 
sight into  the  new  governor's  character  and  pre- 

*"The  Life  of  George  Mason,"  by  Kate  Mason  Rowland,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  I3Z-3. 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

vious  history,  though  from  the  complimentary 
allusion  to  Lord  Hillsborough  with  which  the 
letter  begins,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the 
writer  had  strong  Tory  leanings. 

"  I  congratulate  you  and  my  country  on  the 
appointment  of  Lord  Botetourt  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Virginia.  Lord  Hillsborough,  who  is 
indefatigable  in  his  endeavour  to  do  good  to  the 
Colonies,  and  be  made  acquainted  with  their  real 
situation  and  complaints — I  believe  has  deter- 
mined no  longer  to  allow  posts  in  America,  but 
especially  governments,  to  be  enjoyed  by  non- 
residents, and  I  know  it  was  the  first  thing  he 
thought  of  on  entering  into  his  office,  to  reform 
this  terrible  abuse  in  Virginia.  At  last  thank 
Heaven  he  has  effected  the  great  work,  and  surely 
has  given  us  a  strong  proof  of  his  opinion  of  the 
consequence  of  an  American  government,  by  his 
appointment  of  Lord  Botetourt ;  a  man  of  a  very 
amiable  character  here,  remarkable  for  his  very 
great  attention  to  business,  as  he  was  said  never 
to  be  absent  from  the  House  of  Commons  dur- 
ing twenty  years  he  was  a  member  of  it,  at  read- 
ing of  prayers  or  when  the  house  was  adjourned, 
and  he  has  been  as  remarkable  since  he  came  to 
the  House  of  Peers  for  his  close  attendance  there. 
He  never  was  married,  has  been  ever  commended 
for  his  hospitality  and  affability,  has,  I  believe, 
a  very  independent  fortune,  and,  I  know,  one  of 


THE   BOSTON   PORT  BILL 

the  prettiest  seats  in  England,  as  I  have  often 
visited  it  with  great  pleasure.  You'll  find  his 
Lordship's  title  a  very  old  one,  though  he  was 
long  kept  out  of  it.  He  is  one  of  the  Lords  of 
the  King's  Bed  Chamber,  and  has  always  sat  in 
the  chair,  since  his  title  was  acknowledged,  when 
the  Lords  have  been  in  a  committee.  Upon  my 
honour  I  think  from  his  general  character  and  the 
small  acquaintance  I  have  the  honour  of  with 
him,  no  man  is  more  likely  to  make  the  people 
of  Virginia  happy,  nor  scarce  anyone  who  will  be 
able  more  and  essentially  to  serve  them  here,  and  I 
do  most  sincerely  rejoice  at  his  appointment.  .  .  . 

"  If  you  have  any  worthy,  industrious  young 
man  to  recommend  as  a  clerk  to  the  Governor — 
he  must  not  be  a  gentleman  above  his  business — 
perhaps  you  may  get  the  berth  for  him.  I  have 
told  his  Lordship  that  Mr.  Walthoe  and  you  will 
be  able  to  furnish  him  with  one  immediately. 
Remember  if  you  choose  to  be  concerned  in  the 
recommendation,  that  his  Lordship  is  a  man  of 
business,  and  [will]  employ  no  fine,  proud  young 
gentleman  who  will  be  above  his  employment/' 

Lord  Botetourt  was  a  man  of  fine  education 
and  a  lover  of  the  liberal  arts.  Shortly  after  his 
arrival  at  Williamsburg,  with  the  view  of  stimu- 
lating the  love  for  learning  in  the  Colony,  he  pre- 
sented to  her  highly  flourishing  College  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary,  gold  medals,  which  were  awarded 

240 


annually  for  the  next  four  years  for  excellence  in 
both  the  classics  and  mathematics.  His  interest 
in  education,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  intolerance  of  the  times, 
though  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  may 
be  deduced  from  the  following  extract  from  the 
Virginia  Gazette  of  November  2nd,  1769. 

"  Last  Sunday  afternoon  the  Reverend  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  President  of  the  College  of  Nassau 
Hall,  at  Princeton,  preached  to  a  crowded  audi- 
ence in  the  capitol  yard  (there  being  no  house  in 
town  capable  of  containing  such  a  multitude), 
and  gave  universal  satisfaction.  After  sermon  a 
collection  was  made  for  this  excellent  and  grow- 
ing foundation,  which  as  yet  has  no  other  sup- 
port, than  the  generosity  of  the  public,  that 
amounted  to  upwards  of  66  pounds,  and  we  have 
it  from  good  authority  that  his  Excellency  the 
Governor  [Lord  Botetourt]  has  paid  into  the  hands 
of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  for  the  same  benevolent  pur- 
pose a  further  donation  of  fifty  pounds  (such  a 
glorious  spirit  for  the  encouragement  of  useful 
learning  deserves  the  highest  praise,  and  no  doubt 
will  afford  much  pleasure  to  every  lover  of  the 
sciences)." 

The  esteem  in  which  Lord  Botetourt  was 
held  in  the  Colony  and  the  sorrow  at  his  death 
were  fittingly  described  in  the  Virginia  Gazette  of 
October  i8th,  1 770,  as  follows  : 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

"  Williamsburg  October  1 8th. 

"On  Monday  the  i5th  Instant,  about  one 
o'clock  in  the  Morning,  departed  this  Life,  uni- 
versally lamented  throughout  this  Colony,  his  Ex- 
cellency the  Right  Honourable  NORBORNE,  Baron 
de  BOTETOURT,  his  Majesty's  Lieutenant,  Gov- 
ernor General  and  Commander  in  Chief  of  the 
Colony  and  Dominion  of  Virginia,  and  Vice-Ad- 
miral of  the  same.  Truly  and  justly  to  express 
the  many  great  virtues  and  amiable  Qualities 
which  adorn'd  this  noble  Lord,  as  well  in  his 
public  as  private  character,  would  demand  the 
skill  of  the  ablest  penman.  Suffice  it  then  to  in- 
form such  Parts  of  the  world  as  were  Strangers 
to  his  transcendent  merits,  that  Virginia,  in  his 
Fall,  sorely  laments  the  Loss  of  the  best  of  Gov- 
ernors, and  the  best  of  Men.  Let  his  distant 
Relations  and  Friends  be  told  that  we  have  all 
anticipated,  and  shall,  to  the  latest  Period,  share 
their  Griefs  and  deep  afflictions ;  and  that  we 
condole  with  them,  with  the  warmth  of  the  most 
tender  affection." 

Another  contemporary  opinion  of  the  per- 
sonal character  of  Lord  Botetourt  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  following  incident  related  by  Rob- 
ert C.  Nicholas  of  Virginia,  a  man  whose  politi- 
cal affiliations  and  activities  were  entirely  with 
the  party  opposed  to  the  crown. 

"  Visiting,  on  one  occasion,  Lord  Botetourt, 
242 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

with  whom  he  lived  in  the  strictest  friendship, 
he  observed  to  that  nobleman, '  My  Lord,  I  think 
you  will  be  very  unwilling  to  die ;  and  when 
asked  what  gave  rise  to  that  remark,  'Because/ 
said  he,  you  are  so  social  in  your  nature  and  so 
much  beloved,  and  have  so  many  good  things 
around  you  that  you  must  be  loath  to  leave  them.' 
His  lordship  made  no  reply  ;  but  a  short  time 
after,  being  on  his  deathbed,  he  sent  in  haste  for 
Colonel  Nicholas,  who  lived  near  the  palace,  and 
who  instantly  repaired  thither  to  receive  the  last 
sighs  of  his  dying  friend.  On  entering  his  cham- 
ber, he  asked  his  commands.  '  Nothing,'  replied 
his  lordship,  'but  to  let  you  see  that  I  resign 
those  good  things,  of  which  you  formerly  spoke 
with  as  much  composure  as  I  enjoyed  them.' 
After  which  he  grasped  his  hand  with  warmth, 
and  instantly  expired." 

A  graphic  description  of  the  scene  in  the  Capi- 
tol at  the  time  the  memorial  statue  to  Lord  Bote- 
tourt  was  voted  is  preserved  in  the  letter  from 
Richard  Bland  to  his  friend  Thomas  Adams,  then 
absent  in  England.  The  tribute  paid  therein  is 
all  the  more  noteworthy  from  the  fact  that  it  came 
from  one  of  the  men  chosen  three  years  later  to 
represent  Virginia  in  the  Continental  Congress  at 
Philadelphia. 

"  Virginia,  August  ist,  1771. 

"...  By  the  enclosed  Sheet  of  the  House  of 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

Burgesses  Journals,  containing  their  address  in 
answer  to  the  President's  speech  at  the  opening 
of  the  last  assembly,  you  will  see  the  Sentiments 
the  Country  entertained  of  our  late  Governor. 
But  the  assembly  were  not  content  in  with  dem- 
onstrating their  gratitude  to  the  memory  of  that 
excellent  man,  by  verbal  declarations  only ;  they 
have  showed  it  by  a  more  substantial  Evidence. 
A  very  elegant  Statue,  of  him,  is  to  be  erected,  at 
the  Public  Expence,  with  proper  Inscriptions  ex- 
pressing the  grateful  Sense  this  country  entertain- 
ed of  his  Lordship's  prudent  and  wise  adminis- 
tration; and  their  great  Solicitude  to  perpetuate, 
as  far  as  they  are  able,  the  Remembrance  of  those 
many  Public  &  Social  virtues  which  adorned  his 
illustrious  character.  These  are  the  words  of  the 
Resolution.  The  Motion  for  this  Statue  was  no 
sooner  made  than  a  universal  Plaudit  rung  through 
the  House  of  Burgesses  and  the  cry  was  AGREED 

NEMINE    CONTRA    DISSENTE.       So    high  does    the 

memory  of  this  worthy  man  stand  in  the  opin- 
ion of  this  Country.  No  certain  sum  is  appro- 
priated for  this  Statue.  It  is  to  be  sent  for  to 
Great  Britain  under  the  direction  of  six  Gentle- 
men who  are  to  have  it  executed  by  the  best  Statu- 
ary in  England,  that  it  may  be  an  ornament  to 
our  Capitol,  where  it  is  to  be  Fixed,  and  a  last- 
ing and  elegant  Testimony  that  this  Country 
will  ever  pay  the  most  distinguished  Regard 

244 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

and  Veneration  to  Governors  of  Worth  and 
Merit." 

The  statue,  on  its  arrival  from  England  in 
1 774,  was  placed  on  the  grounds  of  the  Capitol, 
and  faced  the  House  of  Burgesses  (a  view  of  this 
building  is  contained  in  the  initial  letter  of  this 
chapter).  Later  on,  after  the  seat  of  government 
had  been  removed  to  Richmond  as  being  more 
inaccessible  to  British  attack,  it  was  transported 
to  its  present  resting-place,  the  beautiful  and  an- 
cient campus  of  William  and  Mary  College  at 
Williamsburg,  and  here  bears  testimony  not  only 
to  Virginia's  bereavement  over  the  loss  of  her 
Governor,  but  also,  by  the  inscriptions  on  its  pedes- 
tal, vividly  recalls  the  loyal  and  dignified  attitude 
assumed  towards  the  royal  government  by  the 
men  by  whom  it  was  voted. 

It  was  chiselled  out  of  Italian  marble.  Upon 
the  base  appears  the  name  of  the  sculptor 

RICHARD      HAYWARD 
LONDON,     MLCCLXXII 

The  figure  itself,  though  its  nose  is  mutilated 
and  the  right  hand  missing,  fortunately  shows 
but  slightly  the  effects  of  long  exposure  to  cli- 
matic influences  and  the  ravages  of  war,  for  dur- 
ing four  long  years  Williamsburg  was  little  more 
than  a  hostile  camp. 

The  marble  pedestal,  however,  remains  in  an 


245 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


almost  perfect  state  of  preservation  and  is  re- 
markable not  only  for  the  marvelously  beautiful 
carvings  of  honeysuckle  and  acanthus  leaves, 
which  form  respectively  its  upper  and  lower  bor- 
ders, but  also  for  the  fine  proportions  of  the  four 
sides,  all  of  which  were  devoted  to  inscriptions 
perpetuating  Virginia's  tribute  to  the  virtue  of 
the  man  who  had  been  her  Governor,  and  also 
to  defining,  in  quiet  but  forcible  language,  her 
attitude  in  the  then  all-absorbing  differences  be- 
tween King  and  Colonies.  The  front  panel  of  the 
pedestal,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  engraving  at  the 
beginning  of  this  chapter,  bears  the  following 
inscription : 


THE 

RIGHT  HONOURABLE 
NORBORNE  BERKELEY 
BARON  DE  BOTETOURT 

HIS  MAJESTY'S 

LATE  LIEUTENANT  AND 

GOVERNOR  GENERAL  OF  THE 

COLONY  AND  DOMINION 

OF  VIRGINIA 


Below  this  inscription  appears  the  coat  of 
arms  of  the  one  in  whose  memory  the  statue  was 
erected  (an  engraving  of  this  appears  in  the 
right-hand  panel  of  the  illustration  which  heads 
this  chapter).  On  the  side  of  the  pedestal  under 
the  broken  arm  is  carved  in  Roman  letters  the 
following  acknowledgment  of  Virginia's  debt  of 

246 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

gratitude  to  her  late  Governor ;  beneath  this  are 
two  lines  of  protest  against  unwise  legislation. 

DEEPLY  IMPRESS'D  WITH  THE  WARMEST  SENSE 

OF  GRATITUDE  FOR  HIS  EXCELLENCY  THE 
RIGHT  HONBLB  LORD  BOTETOURT's  PRUDENT 
AND  WISE  ADMINISTRATION,  AND  THAT  THE 
REMEMBRANCE  OF  THOSE  MANY  PUBLIC  AND 

SOCIAL  VIRTUES  WHICH  SO  EMINENTLY 

ADORN'D  HIS  ILLUSTRIOUS  CHARACTER,  MIGHT 

BE  TRANSMITTED  TO  LATEST  POSTERITY, 

THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  VIRGINIA 

ON  THE  XX  DAY  OF  JULY  ANN!  DOM:  M.DCC.LXXI 

RESOLVED  WITH  ONE  UNITED  VOICE  TO  ERECT 

THIS  STATUE  TO  HIS  LORDSHIP'S  MEMORY. 

LET  WISDOM  AND  JUSTICE  PRESIDE  IN  ANY  COUNTRY; 

THE  PEOPLE  WILL  REJOICE  AND  MUST  BE  HAPPY. 

Graceful  as  is  the  phraseology  of  this  tribute, 
yet  on  the  side  of  the  pedestal  shown  in  the  en- 
graving may  be  seen  a  still  more  beautifully 
worded  recognition  of  the  lamented  Governor's 
efforts  to  right  wrongs  from  which  not  only 
Virginia  herself,  but  other  American  Colonies 
were  suffering. 

AMERICA  !    BEHOLD  YOUR  FRIEND  ! 

WHO,  LEAVING  HIS  NATIVE  COUNTRY, 

DECLIN'D  THOSE  ADDITIONAL  HONOURS,  WHICH 

WERE  THERE  IN  STORE  FOR  HIM,  THAT 
HE  MIGHT  HEAL  YOUR  WOUNDS,  AND  RESTORE 

TRANQUILLITY  AND  HAPPINESS  TO  THIS 

EXTENSIVE  CONTINENT  :    WITH  WHAT  ZEAL 

AND  ANXIETY  HE  PURSUED  THESE  GLORIOUS 

OBJECTS,  VIRGINIA  THUS  BEARS  HER 

GRATEFUL  TESTIMONY. 

247 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

On  the  rear  of  the  pedestal  (see  page  282)  is 
an  exquisitely  carved  bas-relief,  emblematic  of 
Virginia's  desire  for  a  peaceful  solution  of  the 
differences  which  had  arisen  between  King  and 
Colony — two  figures,  Britannia  and  an  Indian — 
Great  Britain  and  America — extending  to  each 
other  the  olive  branch.  Between  them  stands  a 
classic  altar  upon  which  is  carved  the  word 


CONCORDIA. 


After  the  death  of  Lord  Botetourt,  William 
Nelson,  the  President  of  the  Council,  acted  as 
the  Executive  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  Gov- 
ernor, Lord  Dunmore,  in  1772.  This  repre- 
sentative of  the  Crown  adopted  a  different  course 
of  action  from  that  of  his  noble  predecessor,  and 
by  his  haughty  conduct  and  evident  contempt 
for  the  men  of  Virginia  stirred  up  anew  the  ani- 
mosities which  Lord  Botetourt  had  succeeded 
in  allaying. 

In  March,  1773,  the  Virginia  House  of  Bur- 
gesses became  alarmed  at  the  situation  in  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay, and  also  at  the  threatened  pun- 
ishment of  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island  for  her 
part  in  the  affair  of  the  Gaspe,  and  meeting  as 
a  Committee  of  the  Whole,  passed  resolutions 
which  called  on  the  legislative  bodies  in  the 
various  Colonies  to  appoint  Committees  of  Cor- 
respondence which  should  communicate  with  a 

248 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

similar  Committee  of  Virginians  on  all  matters 
regarding  the  public  safety.  The  Assembly  of 
Massachusetts-Bay  had  invited  the  towns  of  that 
province  to  form  similar  Committees  of  Corre- 
spondence in  order  that  a  province  might  act  as 
a  unit.  Virginia  took  steps  to  unite  a  nation. 

News  of  the  threatened  closing  of  the  Port 
of  Boston  was  carried  to  the  various  Colonies  by 
speedy  messengers,  and  reached  Williamsburg  on 
the  morning  of  May  24th,  1 774.  The  Virginia 
Gazette  of  May  26th— 28th  described  the  action 
instantly  taken  by  the  House  of  Burgesses,  with 
its  attending  results,  under  the  heading  of 

"Proceedings  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 

"Tuesday,  the  24th  of  May,  14  Geo.  III.  1774. 
"  This  House  being  deeply  impressed  with 
apprehension  of  the  great  dangers  to  be  derived 
to  British  America  from  the  hostile  invasion  of 
the  city  of  Boston,  in  our  sister  colony  of  Mas- 
sachusetts-Bay, whose  commerce  and  harbour 
are  on  the  ist  day  of  June  next  to  be  stopped 
by  an  armed  force,  deem  it  highly  necessary  that 
the  said  ist  day  of  June  be  set  apart  by  the  mem- 
bers of  this  house  as  a  day  of  fasting,  humilia- 
tion, and  prayer,  devoutly  to  implore  the  divine 
interposition  for  averting  the  heavy  calamity 
which  threatens  destruction  to  our  civil  rights 
and  the  evils  of  civil  war ;  to  give  us  one  heart 

249 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

and  one  mind  firmly  to  oppose,  by  all  just  and 
proper  means,  every  injury  to  American  rights, 
and  that  the  minds  of  his  majesty  and  his  parlia- 
ment may  be  inspired  from  above  with  wisdom, 
moderation,  and  justice,  to  remove  from  the  loyal 
people  of  America  all  cause  of  danger  from  a 
continued  pursuit  of  measures  pregnant  with 
their  ruin. 

"ORDERED,  therefore,  that  the  members 
of  this   house  do  attend   in  their  places   at  the 
hour  of  ten  in  the  forenoon,  on  the  said  I  st  day 
of  June    next,   in   order   to   proceed   with   the 
speaker  and  the  mace  to  the  church  in  this  city 
for  the  purpose  aforesaid ;  and  that  the  reverend 
Mr.  Price  be  appointed  to  read  prayers,   and  to 
preach  a  sermon  suitable  to  the  occasion. 
By  the  House  of  Burgesses. 
GEORGE  WYTHE,  C.  H.  B. 

"  In  consequence  of  the  above,  his  excellency 
the  governor  thought   proper  yesterday  to  dis- 
solve the  House  with  the  following  speech : 
"  Mr.  Speaker,  and  gentlemen  of  the  house  of  bur- 
gesses, 

'  I  have  in  my  hand  a  paper,  published  by 
order  of  your  house,  conceived  in  such  terms  as  re- 
flect highly  upon  his  majesty,  and  the  parliament 
of  Great  Britain,  which  makes  it  necessary  to  dis- 
solve you,  and  you  are  dissolved  accordingly.' 

"  This  day   the  late  burgesses    of  Virginia 
250 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

formed  themselves  into  a  committee,  to  consider 
the  most  expedient  and  necessary  measures  to 
guard  against  the  encroachments  which  so  glar- 
ingly threaten  them,  when  they  spiritedly  agreed 
to  the  following  association  : — 
"An  ASSOCIATION,  signed  by  89  members 

of  the  late  House  of  Burgesses. 
"  We  his  majesty's  most  dutiful  and  loyal 
subjects,  the  late  representatives  of  the  good  peo- 
ple of  this  country,  having  been  deprived  by  the 
sudden  interposition  of  the  executive  part  of  this 
government  from  giving  our  countrymen  the 
advice  we  wished  to  convey  to  them  in  a  legis- 
lative capacity,  find  ourselves  under  the  hard 
necessity  of  adopting  this,  the  only  method  we 
have  left,  of  pointing  out  to  our  countrymen 
such  measures  as  in  our  opinion  are  best  fitted  to 
secure  our  dearest  rights  and  liberty  from  de- 
struction, by  the  heavy  hand  of  power  now  lifted 
against  North  America :  With  much  grief  we 
find  that  our  dutiful  applications  to  Great  Britain 
for  security  of  our  just,  antient,  and  constitu- 
tional rights,  have  been  not  only  disregarded, 
but  that  a  determined  system  is  formed  and 
pressed  for  reducing  the  inhabitants  of  British 
America  to  slavery,  by  subjecting  them  to  the 
payment  of  taxes,  imposed  without  the  consent 
of  the  people  or  their  representatives ;  and  that 
in  pursuit  of  this  system,  we  find  an  act  of  the 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

British  parliament,  lately  passed,  for  stopping  the 
harbour  and  commerce  of  the  town  of  Boston,  in 
our  sister  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  until  the 
people  there  submit  to  the  payment  of  such  un- 
constitutional taxes,  and  which  act  most  violently 
and  arbitrarily  deprives  them  of  their  property, 
in  wharfs  erected  by  private  persons,  at  their 
own  great  and  proper  expense,  which  act  is,  in 
our  opinion,  a  most  dangerous  attempt  to  destroy 
the  constitutional  liberty  and  rights  of  all  North 
America.  It  is  further  our  opinion,  that  as  TEA, 
on  its  importation  into  America,  is  charged  with 
a  duty,  imposed  by  parliament  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  a  revenue,  without  the  consent  of  the 
people,  it  ought  not  to  be  used  by  any  person 
who  wishes  well  to  the  constitutional  rights  and 
liberty  of  British  America.  And  whereas  the 
India  company  have  ungenerously  attempted  the 
ruin  of  America,  by  sending  many  ships  loaded 
with  tea  into  the  colonies,  thereby  intending  to 
fix  a  precedent  in  favour  of  arbitrary  taxation, 
we  deem  it  highly  proper  and  do  accordingly 
recommend  it  strongly  to  our  countrymen,  not 
to  purchase  or  use  any  kind  of  East  India  com- 
modity whatsoever,  except  saltpetre  and  spices, 
until  the  grievances  of  America  are  redressed. 
We  are  further  clearly  of  opinion,  that  an  at- 
tack, made  on  one  of  our  sister  colonies,  to  com- 
pel submission  to  arbitrary  taxes,  is  an  attack 

25* 


VIRGINIA  SUPPORTS  BOSTON 

made  on  all  British  America,  and  threatens  ruin 
to  the  rights  of  all,  unless  the  united  wisdom  of 
the  whole  be  applied.  And  for  this  purpose  it 
is  recommended  to  the  committee  of  correspond- 
ence, that  they  communicate  with  their  several 
corresponding  committees,  on  the  expediency  of 
appointing  deputies  from  the  several  colonies  of 
British  America,  to  meet  in  general  congress,  at 
such  place  annually  as  shall  be  thought  most 
convenient ;  there  to  deliberate  on  those  general 
measures  which  the  united  interests  of  America 
may  from  time  to  time  require. 

"  A  tender  regard  for  the  interest  of  our  fel- 
low subjects,  the  merchants  and  manufacturers 
of  Great  Britain,  prevents  us  from  going  further 
at  this  time ;  most  earnestly  hoping,  that  the  un- 
constitutional principle  of  taxing  the  colonies 
without  their  consent  will  not  be  persisted  in, 
thereby  to  compel  us  against  our  will,  to  avoid 
all  commercial  intercourse  with  Britain.  Wish- 
ing them  and  our  people  free  and  happy,  we  are 
their  affectionate  friends,  the  late  representatives 
of  Virginia. 
"  The  2/th  day  of  May,  1 774. 

"  We  the  subscribers,  clergymen  and  other 
inhabitants  of  the  colony  and  dominion  of  Vir- 
ginia, having  maturely  considered  the  contents 
of  the  above  association,  do  most  cordially  ap- 
prove and  accede  thereto, — in  number  21." 

*53 


THE    BOSTON    PORT   BILL 


American  history  was  being  made  rapidly  at 
Williamsburg  during  the  closing  days  of  May, 
1774.  The  Resolution  of  the  24th,  the  Dis- 
solution two  days  later,  leaving  untouched  much 
business  for  which  the  session  had  been  called, 
the  formation  of  the  Association  on  the  a8th, 
the  arrival  on  the  29th  of  a  letter  from  the  Com- 
mittee of  Correspondence  in  Boston,  to  Virginia's 
Committee  at  Williamsburg,  and  the  issuing  of 
a  call  for  Deputies  to  meet  at  Williamsburg  on 
August  first,  made  the  week  a  memorable  one. 
The  proposed  convention  was  called  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  the  necessity  and  advisa- 
bility of  prohibiting  not  only  the  importation 
of  goods  from  Great  Britain,  which  had  been 
the  course  adopted  by  former  Associations,  but 
also  of  forbidding  the  exportation  of  Virginia's 
native  products  to  Great  Britain. 

The  engraving  on  page  285  pictures  the  old 
Bruton  Parish  Church  as  it  appears  to-day  in  the 
quaint  colonial  town  of  Williamsburg,  and  it  is 
not  difficult  to  imagine  the  solemnity  of  the 
scene  on  that  June  morning,  when  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  place,  and  those  members  of  the 
House  who  had  not  returned  to  their  homes, 
dressed  in  the  deepest  mourning,  crowded  the 
service  ordered  by  their  Assembly  to  be  held  in 
this,  their  sacred  edifice,  and  participated  in  the 
Communion,  served  from  the  very  silver  vessels 

*S4 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

which  appear  in  the  border  of  the  above  men- 
tioned illustration.  No  more  fitting  description 
of  the  intensity  of  the  feeling  shown  by  the 
people  of  Virginia  on  this  day  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  than  the  following  letter  which  was 
printed  in  the  London  Chromc/eofjuly  1 6th- 1 9th, 
1774,  written  by  a  woman  evidently  of  English 
birth  then  resident  in  Williamsburg : 

"  Extract  of  a  letter  from  a  Lady  at  Williamsburgh, 
in  Virginia,  to  a  Friend  in  London,  dated 
June  ist" 

"  The  state  of  affairs  in  America  at  present 
wears  a  very  gloomy  aspect,  the  measures  fallen 
upon  by  those  in  power  on  your  side  of  the  water 
will  make  the  Americans  desperate,  as  all  the 
colonies  seem  determined  to  unite  in  defence  of 
their  rights  and  liberties.  The  news  of  the  port 
of  Boston  being  blocked  up  came  to  Virginia  when 
our  Burgesses  were  met  in  General  Assembly ; 
a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  proposed  and 
agreed  to  by  the  whole ;  the  preamble  to  the 
proposition  was  in  such  terms  as  brought  on  a 
dissolution.  This  day  being  the  first  of  June 
was  the  day  appointed  for  the  fast,  which  has 
been  observed  by  all  ranks  of  people.  Never 
since  my  residence  in  Virginia  have  I  ever  seen 
so  large  a  congregation  as  was  this  day  assem- 
bled to  hear  divine  service.  What  will  be  the 


THE    BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

event  God  knows.  Our  Gentlemen  of  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  and  the  Townsmen  in  Williams- 
burgh  have  had  a  meeting,  but  nothing  has  been 
determined  ;  the  first  of  August  is  appointed  for 
a  general  meeting  of  all  the  late  Representatives 
of  the  different  counties  in  Williamsburgh,  when 
something  will  be  determined  upon.  We  expect 
there  will  be  a  stop  put  to  importation  and  ex- 
portation, which  may  fall  heavy  on  England,  as 
she  depends  chiefly  on  her  trade.  America  has 
everything  within  herself  that  is  necessary  and 
convenient.  We  have  nothing  but  luxuries  from 
England  that  we  may  very  well  do  without.  We 
have  a  large  fine  extensive  country  that  would 
maintain  millions  more  than  it  at  present  con- 
tains, and  can  do  much  better  without  England, 
than  England  can  without  her.  You  see,  my 
sister,  I  talk  like  an  American,  and  well  I  may; 
she  has  been  kinder  to  me  than  my  native  coun- 
try ;  to  her  I  owe  everything  I  possess,  and  I 
will  most  chearfully  comply  with  whatever  may 
be  thought  for  the  general  good,  though  it  will 
be  considerably  to  my  disadvantage.  So  much 
for  public  affairs  ;  I  fear  I  shall  turn  Politician  ; 
a  character  I  always  disliked  in  a  female." 

The  following  letter  published  in  the  same 
news  sheet  a  few  days  later  foretold  the  action 
of  the  proposed  convention  of  August  first  and 
prepared  its  readers  for  the  stern  but  necessary 

256 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

measures  soon  to  be  adopted  in  behalf  of  the 
suffering  town  of  Boston  by  her  fellow  colonists 
in  Virginia  : 

"Extract  of  a  Letter  from  a  Member  of  the  late 
House  of  Burgesses  in  Virginia,  to  his  Cor- 
respondent in  London,  dated  at  Williamsburg, 
the  fth  of  'June,  1774. 


"  Our  Assembly  was  suddenly  dissolved  the 
26th  of  last  month  in  consequence  of  the  resolve 
(since  published  in  the  London  Papers)  appoint- 
ing the  ist  of  June  the  day  the  Boston  port  bill 
was  to  take  place,  as  a  solemn  day  for  fasting 
and  prayer.  Some  very  spirited  resolutions  were 
ready  for  the  House  respecting  the  conduct  of 
Parliament  towards  Boston,  &c.,  but  intended 
to  be  kept  up  till  the  material  and  essential  busi- 
ness of  the  country  was  finished,  not  suspecting 
a  dissolution  till  that  happened. 

"  The  next  day  (the  27th  of  May)  an  asso- 
ciation was  formed,  signed  by  89  Members  of 
the  late  House  of  Burgesses  ;  and  some  letters 
arriving  from  the  neighbouring  colonies,  on  this 
melancholy  subject,  before  the  fast  which  many 
waited  for,  and  others  were  to  return  to,  they 
convened,  and  by  a  unanimous  resolve  agreed  to 
invite  all  the  Members  of  the  late  House,  and 
such  of  the  principal  Gentlemen  of  the  country 
as  should  choose  to  attend,  to  meet  the  first  day 

157 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

of  August  next,  to  deliberate  on  ways  and  means 
to  make  Britain  feel  the  consequence  of  her  col- 
onies. 

"A  general  association  you  may  be  assured 
will  then  be  formed  against  exports  to,  and  im- 
ports from  Britain,  of  course  no  tobacco  will  be 
made,  and  every  person  is  to  be  bound  by  oath 
to  execute  this  plan,  and  such  as  will  be  gener- 
ally proposed  by  the  other  colonies.  In  this 
situation  of  things  it  is  impossible  even  to  hope 
for  an  increase  of  our  property  ;  and  we  shall 
undoubtedly  feel  great  hardships  in  carrying  a 
general  association  of  such  a  nature  into  execu- 
tion, but  it  will  most  certainly  take  place. 

"  We  are  all  much  concerned  that  our  friends, 
and  the  friends  to  liberty  in  Britain  must  suffer 
in  this  general  calamity,  but  we  have  no  other 
weapons  to  fight  with,  and  the  necessity  must 
plead  the  excuse.  Many  laws  of  great  conse- 
quence to  the  colony  have  expired,  as  we  were 
dissolved  before  bills  were  passed  for  their  con- 
tinuance." 

At  every  tavern  and  fireside  in  the  Colony 
during  the  next  two  months  the  probable  action 
of  the  convention  called  to  meet  August  first  was 
thoroughly  discussed.  The  counties  held  their 
own  conventions  and  elected  and  instructed  del-" 
egates  as  to  the  course  they  were  to  adopt.  That 
of  Fairfax  County  was  presided  over  by  Colonel 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

George  Washington  and  passed  twenty-six  reso- 
lutions and  entered  into  an  Association  of  their 
own.  The  work  of  this  gathering  formed  the 
basis  for  resolutions  passed  and  Association  en- 
tered into  at  Williamsburg.  Among  the  Fair- 
fax resolves  the  following  is  of  especial  interest 
as  it  voiced  the  opinion  of  Virginia  on  the  ques- 
tion which  eighty-seven  years  later  precipitated 
the  conflict  between  the  descendants  of  the  men 
who  from  both  North  and  South  were  then 
uniting  against  the  common  peril,  for  it  declared 
"That  it  is  the  opinion  of  this  meeting,  that 
during  our  present  difficulties  and  distress,  no 
slaves  ought  to  be  imported  into  any  of  the 
British  Colonies  on  this  continent ;  and  we  take 
this  opportunity  of  declaring  our  most  earnest 
wishes  to  see  an  entire  stop  forever  put  to  such 
a  wicked,  cruel,  and  unnatural  trade." 

Virginia  had  long  realized  the  injustice  as 
well  as  the  material  disadvantage  of  this  traffic 
to  herself,  and  two  years  previously  her  Assem- 
bly had  sent  an  address  to  the  King  in  which  it 
was  stated  that  "  the  importation  of  slaves  into 
the  colonies  from  the  coast  of  Africa  hath  long 
been  considered  as  a  trade  of  great  inhumanity, 
and  under  its  present  encouragement  we  have 
too  much  reason  to  fear  will  endanger  the  very 
existence  of  your  Majesty's  American  dominions. 
We  are  sensible  that  some  of  your  Majesty's  sub- 

*59 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

jects  in  Great  Britain  may  reap  emoluments  from 
this  sort  of  traffic,  but  when  we  consider  that  it 
greatly  retards  the  settlement  of  the  colonies 
with  more  useful  inhabitants,  and  may,  in  time, 
have  the  most  destructive  influence,  we  presume 
to  hope  that  the  interest  of  a  few  will  be  disre- 
garded, when  placed  in  competition  with  the 
security  of  and  happiness  of  such  numbers  of 
your  Majesty's  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects."  The 
protest  was  disregarded,  hence  this  action  of  the 
men  of  Fairfax  County  in  taking  measures  to 
redress  this  grievance  of  their  own. 

The  convention  at  Williamsburg  lasted  six 
days,  and  unanimously  entered  into  an  Associa- 
tion, and  passed  a  series  of  Resolutions  couched 
in  terms  so  comprehensive  and  so  earnest,  that 
they  must  be  considered  to  be  one  of  our  great 
political  classics.  For  the  sake  of  a  thorough 
understanding  of  the  cartoon,  which  illustrates 
this  chapter,  as  well  as  of  forcibly  picturing  the 
attitude  of  the  Virginians  at  this  time,  the  fol- 
lowing account  of  the  Convention,  as  published 
in  the  Mtdd/esexjourna/ of  September  I7th-2oth, 
1774,  is  here  reprinted.  For  lack  of  space 
the  one  hundred  and  eight  signatures  thereto  at- 
tached are  here  omitted. 

NEWS   from  AMERICA 
"At  a  'very  full  meeting  of  Delegates  from  the 


260 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

different  Counties  in  the  Colony  and  Dominion  of  VIR- 
GINIA, begun  in  Williamsburg  the  1st  Day  of  Au- 
gust, in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1774,  and  continued,  by 
several  Adjournments  to  Saturday  the  6th  of  the 
same  Month,  the  following  ASSOCIATION  was 
unanimously  resolved  upon  and  agreed  to. 

"  We  his  Majesty's  dutiful  and  loyal  subjects, 
Delegates  of  the  Freeholders  of  Virginia  deputed 
to  represent  them  at  a  General  Meeting  in  the 
city  of  Williamsburg,  avowing  our  inviolable 
and  unshaken  fidelity,  and  attachment  to  our 
most  gracious  Sovereign,  our  regard  and  affec- 
tion for  all  our  friends  and  fellow  subjects  in  Great- 
Britain  and  elsewhere,  protesting  against  every  act 
or  thing,  which  may  have  the  most  distant  ten- 
dency to  interrupt,  or  in  any  wise  disturb  his 
Majesty's  peace,  and  the  good  order  of  govern- 
ment, within  this  his  ancient  colony,  which  we 
are  resolved  to  maintain  and  defend,  at  the  risk 
of  our  lives  and  fortunes,  but  at  the  same  time 
affected  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  and  most 
alarming  apprehensions,  of  those  grievances  and 
distresses  by  which  his  Majesty's  American  sub- 
jects are  oppressed,  and  having  taken  under  our 
most  serious  deliberation  the  state  of  the  whole 
continent,  find  that  the  present  unhappy  situa- 
tion of  our  affairs  is  chiefly  occasioned  by  cer- 
tain ill-advised  regulations,  as  well  of  our  trade 
as  internal  policy,  introduced  by  several  uncon- 

261 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

stitutional  Acts  of  the  British  Parliament,  and, 
at  length,  attempted  to  be  enforced  by  the  hand 
of  power  ;  solely  influenced  by  these  important 
and  weighty  considerations,  we  think  it  an  in- 
dispensable duty,  which  we  owe  to  our  country, 
ourselves,  and  latest  posterity,  to  guard  against 
such  dangerous  and  extensive  mischiefs,  by  every 
just  and  proper  means. 

"  If,  by  the  measures  adopted,  some  unhappy 
consequences  and  inconveniences  should  be  de- 
rived to  our  fellow  subjects,  whom  we  wish  not 
to  injure  in  the  smallest  degree,  we  hope  and 
flatter  ourselves,  that  they  will  impute  them  to 
their  real  cause  the  hard  necessity  to  which  we 
are  driven. 

"  That  the  good  people  of  this  colony  may, 
on  so  trying  an  occasion  continue  steadfastly  de- 
voted to  their  most  essential  interests,  in  hopes 
that  they  will  be  influenced  and  stimulated  by 
our  example  to  the  greatest  industry,  the  strict- 
est economy,  and  frugality,  and  the  exertion  of 
every  public  virtue,  persuaded  that  the  merchants, 
manufacturers,  and  other  inhabitants  of  Great- 
Britain,  and,  above  all,  that  the  British  Parlia- 
ment will  be  convinced  how  much  the  true  in- 
terest of  that  kingdom  must  depend  on  the  restor- 
ation and  continuance  of  that  mutual  friendship 
and  cordiality,  which  so  happily  subsisted  be- 
tween us,  we  have  unanimously,  and,  with  one 

262 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

voice,  entered  into  the  following  resolutions  and 
association,  which  we  do  oblige  ourselves  by  those 
sacred  ties  of  honour  and  love  to  our  country, 
strictly  to  observe ;  and  farther  declare,  before 
God  and  the  World,  that  we  will  religiously  ad- 
here to  and  keep  the  same  inviolate,  in  every 
particular,  until  redress  of  all  such  American 
grievances,  as  may  be  defined  and  settled  at  the 
General  Congress  of  Delegates  from  the  differ- 
ent colonies,  shall  be  fully  obtained,  or  until  this 
association  shall  be  abrogated  or  altered  by  a  gen- 
eral meeting  of  the  deputies  of  this  colony,  to  be 
convened,  as  is  hereinafter  directed.  And  we 
do,  with  the  greatest  earnestness,  recommend 
this  our  association  to  all  gentlemen,  merchants, 
traders,  and  other  inhabitants  of  this  colony,  hop- 
ing that  they  will  cheerfully  and  cordially  accede 
thereto. 

"  i  st.  We  do  hereby  resolve  and  declare  that 
we  will  not  either  directly  or  indirectly,  after 
the  first  day  of  November  next,  import  from 
Great  Britain,  any  goods,  wares,  or  merchan- 
dizes, whatever,  (medicines  excepted)  nor  will 
we,  after  that  day,  import  any  British  manufac- 
tures, either  from  the  West  Indies,  or  any  other 
place,  nor  any  article  whatever,  which  we  shall 
know,  or  have  reason  to  believe,  was  brought 
into  such  countries  from  Great  Britain ;  nor  will 
we  purchase  any  such  articles,  so  imported,  of 

263 


THE  BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

any  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  except  such  as 
are  now  in  the  country,  or  such  as  may  arrive  on 
or  before  the  said  first  day  of  November,  in  con- 
sequence of  orders  already  given,  and  which  can- 
not now  be  countermanded  in  time. 

"  2dly.  We  will  neither  ourselves  import,  nor 
purchase  any  slave,  or  slaves,  imported  by  any  per- 
son, after  the  first  day  of  November  next,  either 
from  Africa,  the  West  Indies,  or  any  other  place. 

"  3dly.  Considering  the  article  of  tea  as  the 
detestable  instrument  which  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  present  sufferings  of  our  distressed  friends 
in  the  town  of  Boston,  we  view  it  with  horror, 
and  therefore  resolve,  that  we  will  not,  from  this 
day,  either  import  tea  of  any  kind  whatsoever, 
nor  will  we  use,  or  suffer  even  such  of  it  as  is 
now  on  hand,  to  be  used  in  any  of  our  families. 

"  4thly.  If  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of 
Boston,  or  any  other  colony,  should,  by  violence 
or  dire  necessity  be  compelled  to  pay  the  East 
India  company  for  destroying  any  tea,  which 
they  have  lately  by  their  agents  unjustly  at- 
tempted to  force  into  the  Colonies,  we  will  not, 
directly  or  indirectly,  import  or  purchase  any 
British  East  India  commodity  whatever,  till  the 
Company  or  some  other  person,  on  their  behalf, 
shall  refund  and  fully  restore  to  the  owners  all 
such  sum  or  sums  of  money  as  may  be  so  extorted. 

"  5thly.  We  do  resolve,  that  unless  American 
264 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

grievances  are  redressed  before  the  loth  day  of 
August,  1775,  we  will  not,  after  that  day,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  export  tobacco  or  any  other 
article  whatever  to  Great  Britain ;  nor  will  we 
sell  any  such  articles  as  we  think  can  be  exported 
to  Great  Britain  with  a  prospect  of  gain,  to  any 
person  or  persons  whatsoever,  with  a  design  of 
putting  it  into  his  or  their  power  to  export  the 
same  to  Great  Britain,  either  on  our  own,  his,  or 
their  account.  And  that  this  resolution  may  be 
the  more  effectually  carried  into  execution,  we 
do  hereby  recommend  it  to  the  inhabitants  of 
this  colony,  to  refrain  from  the  cultivation  of 
tobacco  as  much  as  conveniently  may  be,  and  in 
lieu  thereof,  that  they  will,  as  we  resolve  to  do, 
apply  their  attention  and  industry  to  the  culti- 
vation of  all  such  articles  as  may  form  a  proper 
basis  for  manufactures  of  all  sorts,  which  we  will 
endeavour  to  encourage  throughout  this  colony, 
to  the  utmost  of  our  abilities. 

"  6thly.  We  will  endeavour  to  improve  our 
breed  of  sheep,  and  increase  their  number  to  the 
utmost  extent,  and  to  this  end,  we  will  be  as 
sparing  as  we  conveniently  can,  in  killing  of 
sheep,  especially  those  of  the  most  profitable 
kind ;  and  if  we  should  at  any  time  be  over- 
stocked, or  can  conveniently  spare  any,  we  will 
dispose  of  them  to  our  neighbours,  especially  the 
poorer  sort  of  people,  upon  moderate  terms. 

*6S 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


"  7thly.  Resolved,  that  the  merchants  and 
other  venders  of  goods  and  merchandizes  within 
this  colony,  ought  not  to  take  advantage  of  the 
scarcity  of  goods  that  may  be  occasioned  by  this 
association,  but  that  they  ought  to  sell  the  same 
at  the  rates  they  have  been  accustomed  to  for 
twelve  months  last  past,  and  if  they  shall  sell  any 
such  goods  on  higher  terms,  or  shall  in  any  man- 
ner, or  by  any  device  whatever,  violate  or  depart 
from  this  resolution,  we  will  not,  and  are  of  opin- 
ion, that  no  inhabitant  of  this  colony  ought,  at 
any  time  hereafter,  to  deal  with  any  such  persons, 
their  factors  or  agents  for  any  commodity  what- 
ever; and  it  is  recommended  to  the  Deputies  of 
the  several  counties,  that  committees  be  chosen 
in  each  county,  by  such  persons  as  accede  to  this 
association,  to  take  effectual  care  that  these  re- 
solves be  properly  observed,  and  for  correspond- 
ing occasionally  with  the  General  Committee  of 
Correspondence,  in  the  city  of  Williamsburgh. 
Provided,  that  if  Exchange  should  rise,  such  ad- 
vance may  be  made  in  the  prices  of  goods  as  shall 
be  approved  by  the  Committee  of  each  county. 

"  Sthly.  In  order  the  better  to  distinguish 
such  worthy  merchants  and  traders,  who  are 
well-wishers  to  this  colony,  from  those  who  may 
attempt,  through  motives  of  self-interest,  to  ob- 
struct our  views,  we  do  hereby  resolve,  that  we 
will  not,  after  the  first  day  of  November  next, 

266 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

deal  with  any  merchant  or  trader,  who  will  not 
sign  this  association,  nor  until  he  has  obtained 
a  certificate  of  his  having  done  so  from  the 
County  Committee,  or  any  three  members  there- 
of. And  if  any  merchant,  trader,  or  other  per- 
son, shall  import  any  goods  or  merchandize  after 
the  first  of  November,  contrary  to  this  associa- 
tion, we  give  it  as  our  opinion,  that  such  goods 
and  merchandize  should  be  either  forthwith  re- 
shipped  or  delivered  up  to  the  County  Commit- 
tee, to  be  stored  at  the  risk  of  the  importer,  un- 
less such  importer  shall  give  a  proper  assurance 
to  the  said  Committee,  that  such  goods  or  mer- 
chandizes shall  not  be  sold  within  this  colony 
during  the  continuance  of  this  association  ;  and 
if  such  importer  shall  refuse  to  comply  with  one 
or  the  other  of  these  terms,  upon  application 
and  due  caution  given  to  him  or  her,  by  the  said 
committee,  or  any  three  members  thereof,  such 
committee  is  required  to  publish  the  truth  of  the 
case  in  the  Gazettes,  and  in  the  county  where 
he  or  she  resides,  and  we  will  thereafter  con- 
sider such  person  or  persons  as  inimical  to  this 
country,  and  break  off  every  connection  and  all 
dealings  with  them. 

"  9thly.  Resolved,  that  if  any  person  or  per- 
sons shall  export  tobacco,  or  any  other  commo- 
dity, to  Great  Britain,  after  the  loth  day  of 
August  1775  contrary  to  this  association,  we 

167 


THE   BOSTON   PORT  BILL 

shall  hold  ourselves  obliged  to  consider  such  per- 
son or  persons  as  inimical  to  the  community, 
and  as  an  approver  of  American  grievances  ;  and 
give  it  as  our  opinion  that  the  public  should  be 
advertised  of  his  conduct,  as  in  the  8th  article  is 
desired. 

"  lothly.  Being  fully  persuaded  that  the 
united  wisdom  of  the  General  Congress  may  im- 
prove these  our  endeavours  to  preserve  the  rights 
and  liberties  in  British  America,  we  decline  en- 
larging at  present,  but  do  hereby  resolve  that 
we  will  conform  to,  and  strictly  observe,  all  such 
alterations  or  additions,  assented  to  by  the  Del- 
egates for  this  colony,  as  they  may  judge  it  nec- 
essary to  adopt,  after  the  same  shall  be  published 
and  made  known  to  us. 

"ii  thly.  Resolved,  that  we  will  think  our- 
selves called  upon,  by  every  principle  of  human- 
ity and  brotherly  affection,  to  extend  the  utmost 
and  speediest  relief  to  our  distressed  fellow-sub- 
jects in  the  town  of  Boston,  and  therefore  most 
earnestly  recommend  it  to  all  the  inhabitants  of 
this  colony  to  make  such  liberal  contributions 
as  they  can  afford,  to  be  collected,  and  remitted 
to  Boston,  in  such  manner  as  may  best  answer 
so  desirable  a  purpose. 

"  I2thly  and  lastly.  Resolved,  that  the  mod- 
erator of  this  meeting,  and,  in  case  of  his  death, 
Robert  Carter  Nicholas,  Esq.,  be  empowered,  on 

268 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

any  future  occasion  that  may  in  his  opinion  re- 
quire it,  to  convene  the  several  Delegates  of  this 
colony  at  such  time  and  place  as  he  may  judge 
proper  ;  and,  in  case  of  the  death  or  absence  of 
any  Delegate,  it  is  recommended  that  another  be 
chosen  in  his  place." 

The  Congress  of  the  Colonies,  all  being  rep- 
resented save  Georgia,  met  in  Carpenters  Hall 
at  Philadelphia  (a  view  of  which  appears  in  the 
initial  letter  of  Chapter  III)  on  September  5th, 
1 774,  and  remained  in  session  until  October  25th. 
A  brief  mention  of  its  proceedings  must  here  suf- 
fice. The  radical  action  of  the  Virginia  Conven- 
tion formed  the  basis  for  an  Association  entered 
into  by  the  Colonies  represented.  In  addition 
the  Congress  issued  a  "  Declaration  of  Rights," 
a  "  List  of  Grievances,"  a  "  Series  of  Resolves," 
and  a  "  Letter  to  General  Gage "  requesting 
that  he  cease  from  carrying  to  completion  cer- 
tain military  measures  which  were  most  ob- 
noxious to  the  people  of  Boston.  It  also  drew 
up  and  forwarded  an  "  Address  to  the  People  of 
Great  Britain,"  an  "  Address  to  the  Inhabitants 
of  the  Colonies  "  and  a  "  Letter  to  the  Inhabi- 
tants of  the  Province  of  Quebec."  The  papers 
comprising  this  series,  on  account  of  their  logi- 
cal utterances  and  solid  reasoning,  as  well  as  their 
effect  upon  our  country's  history,  may  well  be 
classed  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 

269 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

which  less  than  two  years  later  was  drawn  up 
and  signed  by  many  of  the  same  men  who  were 
then  meeting  to  devise  measures  to  assist  the 
persecuted  town  of  Boston  and  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts-Bay. 

News  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress 
was  eagerly  awaited  in  England  and  the  results 
of  its  labours  were  published  at  length  in  the 
English  press  :  their  wisdom  and  moderation  in- 
voked many  encomiums  upon  America's  protest 
against  the  treatment  of  Boston. 

Virginia's  call  for  a  Congress  of  the  Colonies 
had  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a  nation.  The 
various  mutual  jealousies,  which  had  hitherto 
kept  the  Colonies  from  acting  together,  were 
now  laid  aside,  and  the  moral  emphasized  by 
the  "disjointed  snake"  with  its  suggestive  legend 
"  JOIN  OR  DIE  "  (see  page  3  ),  which  had  adorned 
the  front  page  of  many  of  the  Colonial  news- 
papers, was  thus  rendered  obsolete  and  was  su- 
perseded by  the  symbol  of  a  "  living  snake  "  en- 
circling a  "Tree  of  Liberty"  resting  on  the 
Magna  Charta,  and  supported  by  the  stalwart 
arms  of  the  twelve  Colonies  represented  at  Phil- 
adelphia. 

This  crudely  drawn  emblem  of  the  now 
United  Colonies,  inscribed  with  the  prophetic 
legend  "  UNITED  NOW  ALIVE  AND  FREE  AND 

THUS  SUPPORTED    EVER   BLESS    OUR    LAND FIRM 


270 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 
ON  THIS  BASIS  LIBERTY  SHALL  STAND  TILL  TIME 

BECOMES  ETERNITY/'  appeared  on  the  first  page 
of  the  New  York  'Journal  or  the  General  Advertiser 
of  December  I5th,  1774,  and  is  reproduced  in 
the  engraving  on  page  1 25  of  this  volume. 

The  Virginians  proceeded  vigourously  to  put 
into  execution  the  articles  of  the  Association. 
The  following  extracts  from  a  letter  from  Gov- 
ernor Dunmore,  which,  after  being  read  in  the 
House  of  Commons  by  Lord  North,  were  printed 
at  length  in  the  press,  gave  a  brief  description 
of  the  general  method  by  which  the  Association 
was  enforced  upon  all  parties : 

"  The  associations  first,  in  part,  entered  into, 
recommended  by  the  people  of  this  colony,  and 
adopted  by  what  is  called  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, are  now  enforcing  throughout  this  coun- 
try, with  the  greatest  rigour.  A  committee  has 
been  chosen  in  every  county,  whose  business  it 
is  to  carry  the  association  of  the  Congress  into 
execution ;  which  committee  assumes  an  author- 
ity to  inspect  the  books,  invoices,  and  all  other 
secrets  of  the  trade  and  correspondence  of  mer- 
chants ;  to  watch  the  conduct  of  every  inhabi- 
tant, without  distinction ;  and  to  send  for  all 
such  as  come  under  this  suspicion,  into  their 
presence,  to  interrogate  them  respecting  all  mat- 
ters which,  at  their  pleasure,  they  think  fit  ob- 
jects of  their  inquiry ;  and  to  stigmatise,  as  they 

271 


THE  BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


term  it,  such  as  they  find  transgressing,  what 
they  are  now  hardy  enough  to  call  the  laws  of 
the  Congress ;  which  stigmatizing,  is  no  other 
than  inviting  the  vengeance  of  an  outrageous  and 
lawless  mob,  to  be  exercised  upon  the  unhappy 
victims.  Every  county  besides  is  now  arming  a 
company  of  men,  whom  they  call  an  independent 
company,  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  protecting 
their  committees,  and  to  be  employed  against 
government,  if  occasion  require.  The  commit- 
tee of  one  county  has  proceeded  so  far,  as  to 
swear  the  men  of  their  independent  company  to 
execute  all  orders  which  shall  be  given  them 
from  the  committee  of  their  county. 

"  As  to  the  power  of  government  which  your 
Lordship,  in  your  letter  No.  II  directs  should 
be  exerted  to  counteract  the  dangerous  measures 
pursuing  here,  I  can  assure  your  Lordship,  that 
it  is  entirely  disregarded,  if  not  wholly  over- 
turned. There  is  not  a  Justice  of  Peace  in  Vir- 
ginia that  acts,  except  as  a  committee  man  ;  the 
abolishing  the  Courts  of  Justice  was  the  first  step 
taken,  in  which  the  men  of  fortune  and  pre- 
eminence joined  equally  with  the  lowest  and 
meanest.  The  general  Court  of  Judicature  of 
the  Colony  is  much  in  the  same  predicament ; 
for  though  there  are  at  least  a  majority  of  his- 
Majesty's  council,  who,  with  myself,  are  the 
Judges  of  that  Court,  that  would  steadily  per- 


7.J1 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

form  their  duty,  yet  the  lawyers  have  absolutely 
refused  to  attend,  nor  indeed  would  the  people 
allow  them  to  attend,  or  evidences  to  appear. 
The  reason  commonly  assigned  for  this  proceed- 
ing is,  the  want  of  a  free-bill,  which  expired  at 
the  last  session  of  the  assembly  ;  and  it  is  a  pop- 
ular argument  here,  that  no  power  but  the  leg- 
islature can  establish  fees  ;  and  the  free-bill  not 
having  been  renewed,  is  attributed  to  the  disso- 
lution ;  but  the  true  cause  of  so  many  persons 
joining  in  so  opprobrious  a  measure,  was  to  en- 
gage their  English  creditors,  who  are  numerous, 
to  join  in  the  clamours  of  this  country  ;  and  not 
a  few  to  avoid  paying  the  debts  in  which  many 
of  the  principal  people  here  are  much  involved. 

"  With  regard  to  the  encouraging  of  those, 
as  your  Lordship  likewise  exhorts  me,  who  ap- 
peared, in  principle,  averse  to  these  proceedings, 
I  hope  your  Lordship  will  do  me  the  justice  to 
believe,  I  have  left  no  means  in  my  power  un- 
essayed,  to  draw  all  the  assistance  possible  from 
them  to  his  Majesty's  government,  but  I  pre- 
sume your  Lordship  will  not  think  it  very  ex- 
traordinary, that  my  persuasions  should  have 
been  unavailing  against  the  terrors  which,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  held  out  by  the  committee. 

"  Independent  companies,  &c.  so  universally 
supported,  who  have  set  themselves  up  superior 
to  all  other  authority  under  the  auspices  of  their 

273 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

congress,  the  laws  of  which  they  talk  of  in  a 
stile  of  respect,  and  treat  with  marks  of  rever- 
ence which  they  never  bestowed  on  their  legal 
government,  or  the  laws  proceeding  from  it,  I 
can  assure  your  Lordship,  that  I  have  discouv- 
ered  no  instance  where  the  interposition  of  gov- 
ernment, in  the  feeble  state  to  which  it  is  re- 
duced, could  serve  any  other  purpose  than  to 
suffer  the  disgrace  of  a  disappointment,  and 
thereby  afford  matter  of  great  exultation  to  its 
enemies,  and  increase  their  influence  over  the 
minds  of  the  people. 

"  But,  my  Lord,  every  step  which  has  been 
taken  by  these  infatuated  people  must  inevitably 
defeat  its  own  purpose.  Their  non-importation, 
non-exportation,  &c.  cannot  fail,  in  a  short  time, 
to  produce  a  scarcity,  which  will  ruin  thousands 
of  families  :  the  people  indeed  of  fortune  may 
supply  themselves  and  their  negroes  for  two  or 
three  years,  but  the  middling  and  poorer  sort, 
who  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  have  not  the 
means  of  doing  so,  and  the  produce  of  their 
lands  will  not  purchase  those  necessaries  (with- 
out which  themselves  and  negroes  must  starve) 
of  the  merchants  who  may  have  goods  to  dis- 
pose of,  because  the  merchants  are  prevented 
from  turning  such  products  to  any  account.  As- 
to  manufacturing  for  themselves,  the  people  of 
Virginia  are  very  far  from  being  naturally  indus- 

274 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

trious ;  and  it  is  not  by  taking  away  the  princi- 
pal, if  not  the  only  encouragement  to  industry, 
that  it  can  be  excited ;  nor  is  it  in  times  of  an- 
archy and  confusion  that  the  foundation  of  such 
improvements  can  be  laid.  The  lower  class  of 
people  too  will  discover,  that  they  have  been 
duped  by  the  richer  sort,  who,  for  their  part, 
elude  the  whole  effects  of  the  association  by 
which  their  poor  neighbours  perish.  What  then 
is  to  deter  those  from  taking  the  shortest  mode 
of  supplying  themselves  ?  and,  unrestrained  as 
they  are  by  laws,  from  taking  whatever  they 
want  wherever  they  can  find  it. 

"  The  arbitrary  proceedings  of  these  com- 
mittees, likewise,  cannot  fail  of  producing  quar- 
rels and  dissensions,  which  will  raise  partisans 
of  government ;  and  I  am  firmly  persuaded,  that 
the  colony,  even  by  their  own  acts  and  deeds, 
must  be  brought  to  see  the  necessity  of  depend- 
ing on  its  mother  country,  and  of  embracing  its 
authority." 

Our  cartoonist  unquestionably  received  his 
inspiration  for  picturing  in  a  humourous  way 
and  with  sympathetic  moral  the  defiant  and  res- 
olute attitude  thus  described  as  known  to  exist 
in  Virginia,  from  the  following  article  which 
appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  under  date  of 
January  26th,  1774,  exactly  three  weeks  before 
the  day  of  issue  of  Plate  IV  of  his  series  : 

275 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


"A  letter  from  Edinburgh,  dated  January 
2  ist,  says  :  '  By  accounts  from  Virginia  we  learn, 
that  the  people  there  were  obliging  every  indi- 
vidual to  sign  a  deed,  binding  himself  to  conform 
to  every  resolve  of  the  Congress  :  This  was  com- 
plied with,  by  many  with  great  reluctance,  and 
others  did  actually  refuse ;  but  they  at  last  fell 
upon  an  expedient  at  Williamsburgh,  the  pro- 
vincial capital,  to  remedy  this  backwardness. 
They  erected,  at  the  principal  avenue  to  the 
town,  a  very  high  gibbet,  upon  the  one  side  of 
which  they  hung  a  barrel  of  tar,  and  on  the  other 
side  a  bag  of  feathers,  and  on  each  of  them  the 
following  inscriptions  :  A  Cure  for  the  Refractory. 
In  a  very  short  time  the  deed  bore  testimony, 
that  there  was  not  one  who  had  not  experi- 
enced the  salutary  effect  of  so  healing  a  medi- 


cine.' 


Its  title,  "  THE  ALTERNATIVE  OF  WIL- 
LIAMS-BURG," well  expressed  the  dilemma,  so 
graphically  described,  which  confronted  those 
whose  conduct  failed  to  meet  with  the  approval 
of  the  local  Association. 

The  various  personages  introduced  into  this 
scene  were  portrayed  in  a  way  which  left  no 
doubt  as  to  their  political  leanings.  The  two 
loyalists  forced  to  sign  The  Resolves  of  the  Con- 
gress were  distinguished,  no  less  by  their  dis- 
gusted countenances  than  by  their  imported 

176 


Plate  IV 


THE  ALTERNATIVE  OF  WILLIAMS   BURG. 


Saver  k  J  Bcnn.tt.ViJ  Flat  JbtUf  fa.laArtO,  if  Fit  177.1 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

wearing  apparel,  while  the  Colonials  in  their 
rude,  home-made  dress,  were  given  faces  upon 
which  resolution  and  earnestness  are  clearly  but 
crudely  stamped.  All  the  accessories  of  a  tar 
and  feathering  party  were  placed  in  evidence, 
the  bag  of  feathers,  the  dripping  tar  barrel,  as 
well  as  the  shears,  humanely  utilized  in  reliev- 
ing the  intended  victim  of  his  hair  prior  to  the 
bath  of  molten  tar. 

Possibly  the  long-faced  representative  of  the 
clergy  was  introduced  into  the  gathering  as  a 
reminder  of  the  days  of  the  "  Parsons  Cause  "  in 
1763,  when  a  Virginia  jury,  carried  away  by  the 
persuasive  eloquence  of  Patrick  Henry,  denied 
the  power  of  the  King  to  annul  laws  passed  by 
their  own  legislative  body.  It  is  possible  too 
that  the  cartoonist  might  have  been  influenced 
by  the  remembrance  of  the  action  taken  by  the 
House  of  Burgesses  in  putting  itself  upon  record 
as  being  opposed  to  any  attempted  domination 
over  the  religious  life  of  America,  the  following 
account  of  which  had  appeared  in  the  London 
papers  three  years  before  : 

"At  a  General  Assembly  for  the  Province 
and  Dominion  of  Virginia  holden  at  Williams- 
burg 

"  Extract  from  Votes  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
Friday  12  July  Geo.  Ill  1771. 

" '  Resolved,  Nemine  contradicente,  that  the 


*79 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

thanks  of  this  House  be  given  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Henly,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Gwatkin,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Hewit  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bland,  for  the  wise 
and  well-timed  opposition  they  have  made  to 
the  pernicious  project  of  a  few  mistaken  Clergy- 
men for  introducing  an  American  Bishop,  a 
measure  by  which  much  DISTURBANCE,  great 
ANXIETY,  and  APPREHENSION  would  certainly 
take  place  among  his  Majesty's  faithful  Ameri- 
can subjects  ;  and  that  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Lee 
and  Mr.  Bland  do  acquaint  them  therewith. 
By  the  House  of  Burgesses. 

G.  WYTHE,  C.  H.  B.'  " 

More  probably,  however,  the  artist  recog- 
nized that  the  state  of  affairs  which  he  was  pic- 
turing foreshadowed  the  Disestablishment  of  the 
Anglican  Church  in  the  Colonies,  and  pictured 
the  clergyman  as  being  rightfully  full  of  gloomy 
forebodings. 

The  insertion  of  the  statue  of  a  man  in  an 
attitude  of  deprecation  and  sorrow  and  inscribed 
BOTETOURT  indicates  the  designer's  knowledge 
of  the  attempt  made  by  this  recently  deceased 
Governor  to  bring  about  a  better  understanding 
between  the  King  and  the  Virginians,  as  well  as 
Virginia's  substantial  recognition  of  his  virtue 
and  devotion  to  her  interests. 

The  inscription  on  the  barrel,  "  TOBACCO 
A  PRESENT  For  JOHN  WILKES,  Esq.  LORD 


VIRGINIA    SUPPORTS    BOSTON 

MAYOR  OF  LONDON,"  which  supports  one  end 
of  the  table  upon  which  the  Resolves  of  the  Con- 
gress and  Non-Importation  Agreement  rest,  demon- 
strate that  this  cartoonist  too,  as  well  as  the  one 
whose  work  was  reproduced  upon  page  92,  recog- 
nized the  strength  of  the  bond  of  sympathy  ex- 
isting between  those  in  England,  who  were  sup- 
porting Wilkes  in  his  struggle  to  uphold  the 
liberty  of  the  people,  and  the  men  of  the  Colo- 
nies who,  at  the  instigation  of  Virginia,  had 
united  in  support  of  Boston. 

The  material  at  my  disposal  contains  no  ref- 
erence to  the  receipt  by  Wilkes  of  any  gift  from 
the  planters  of  Virginia.  In  1770  subscriptions 
were  there  solicited  for  a  fund  the  proceeds  of 
which  were  intended  to  purchase  forty-five  hogs- 
heads of  tobacco  for  this  gentleman.  However, 
before  the  necessary  amount  was  completed  its 
treasurer  absconded  and  the  matter  was  dropped. 
There  is  a  possibility  that  our  artist  had  in  mind 
the  present  made  to  Wilkes  by  the  planters  of 
Maryland,  the  following  mention  of  which  had 
appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  October 
28th~3ist,  1769  : 

"  Samuel  Vaughn  Esq.,  had  a  present  of  five 
hogsheads  of  tobacco  from  Maryland  brought  in 
the  same  ship  and  from  the  same  Gentlemen 
who  sent  Mr.  Wilkes  the  45  hogsheads ;  and 
Mr.  Vaughn  was  desired  by  letters  to  pay  the 


THE   BOSTON    PORT    BILL 

duties  and  other  expences  of  the  45  hogsheads 
and  deliver  them  to  Mr.  Wilkes'  order  without 
any  expence  whatever.*' 

Possibly  the  influence  of  the  letter  quoted 
on  page  255  may  account  for  the  introduction  of 
women  into  the  scene  depicted  in  the  cartoon. 
One  of  these,  judging  from  her  costume,  may 
have  well  represented  the  family  of  some  opulent 
planter,  and  her  happy  face,  full  of  amusement, 
truthfully  portrayed  the  encouragement  the  well- 
to-do  Virginians  were  known  to  have  received 
from  the  fair  sex  (see  page  303).  The  coarse 
visage  and  uncouth  garments  of  the  companion 
female  figure  identify  her  as  one  of  the  lower 
class,  who,  with  babe  in  arms  and  small  boy 
armed  with  toy  sword  and  "LIBERTY"  flag, 
was  witnessing  this  enforcement  of  measures 
which  would  necessarily  subject  the  women  of 
the  Colonies  to  hardship  and  privation. 


VI 

ENGLISH  RECOGNITION 

OF  THE  POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF 

THE  WOMEN  OF  THE  COLONIES 


ENGLISH   RECOGNITION  OF  THE   POLITICAL 
ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

HE  preceding  pages  have  been 
devoted  to  a  description  of  cer- 
tain incidents  in  Colonial  life 
selected  by  our  cartoonist  as 
illustrative  of  the  antagonistic 
feeling  then  existing  in  Amer- 
ica against  the  British  Ministry  owing  to  the  ill- 
fated  policy  that  the  latter  were  attempting  to 
enforce.  We  have  seen  how  first  he  pictured 
the  attitude  of  the  men  of  Boston  towards  his 
Majesty's  Excisemen  and  the  distress  brought 
upon  the  people  of  that  town  in  punishment  for 
their  defiance  of  the  royal  mandate.  In  the  two 
following  cartoons  his  energies  were  devoted  to 
the  portrayal  of  the  determination  of  the  men 
of  sister  colonies  to  refrain  from  contributing  to 

*85 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  comfort  of  those  in  the  Royal  Service,  and 
the  depiction  of  one  of  the  methods  of  enforcing 
the  measures  decreed  by  the  now  united  Colo- 
nies in  retaliation  for  the  despotic  and  brutal 
treatment  the  people  of  Boston  were  receiving 
at  the  hands  of  the  Crown.  He  then  ended  this 
series  with  a  delineation  of  the  attitude  assumed 
by  many  of  our  patriotic  Colonial  women,  in 
enthusiastically  supporting  the  methods  devised 
by  their  husbands  and  fathers,  to  impress  upon 
Parliament  their  resolution  to  enjoy  the  freedom 
to  which,  as  Englishmen  and  descendants  of 
Englishmen,  they  were  constitutionally  entitled. 
Possibly  the  cartoonist  was  influenced  in  this 
selection  by  the  fact  that  the  American  policy 
at  this  time  was  being  actively  discussed  in  femin- 
ine circles  in  London,  as  well  as  in  America.  That 
the  sympathy  of  the  gentler  sex  strongly  leaned 
to  the  side  of  the  oppressed  across  the  Atlantic, 
may  be  inferred  from  the  following  item  which 
appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  February 
yth-pth,  1775,  under  the  heading  of  "London 
News :  "  "  We  hear  that  a  noble  Lord,  duly 
sensible  of  the  very  great  influence  of  the  Ladies 
both  without  and  within  the  House,  has  re- 
solved on  the  next  numerous  appearance  of  his 
fair  countrywomen  in  the  galleries  to  order  TEA 
to  be  carried  up,  that  he  may  distinguish  by 
the  acceptance  or  refusal  of  this  favourite  drug, 

286 


POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  OF   COLONIAL  WOMEN 

whether  he  has  a  majority  of  female  votes  in 
his  favour."  The  unwillingness  of  the  Ministry 
to  allow  the  test,  as  well  as  the  eagerness  of  the 
women  thus  to  record  their  sentiments,  is  briefly 
told  in  the  same  newspaper,  two  days  later,  in  the 
following  words  :  "  Great  numbers  of  Ladies 
attended  at  the  House  of  Commons  yesterday, 
but  were  refused  admittance,  as  were  all  strangers; 
and  it  is  said  that  this  will  be  the  case  till  the 
American  business  is  finished." 

Another  political  appeal  to  the  women  of 
England  took  the  form  of  a  shilling  pamphlet. 
It  is  safe  to  assume  that  the  interest  in  the  ques- 
tion therein  discussed,  must  certainly  have  been 
widespread,  to  have  warranted  the  printing  of 
the  following  lengthy  review  of  this  tract  in 
the  first  two  columns  of  the  London  Chronicle  of 
March  nth— 1 4th,  1775,  eleven  days  before  the 
issuance  of  the  cartoon  (reproduced  on  page 
317)  which  forms  the  subject  of  this  chapter  : 

"A  LETTER  to  those  LADIES  whose  HUS- 
BANDS possess  a  SEAT  in  either  HOUSE  of  PAR- 
LIAMENT. Quarto,  Price  i  s. 

"  THIS  Writer  begins  his  address  to  the 
Ladies,  thus  : 

"  '  Ladies, 

"  '  I  appeal  to  your  knowledge. — Your  hus- 
bands return  from  either  House  at  a  late  hour, 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

gloomy,  discontented,  and  pass  the  night  sleep- 
less, yet  unkind.  Ask  them  the  cause,  they  an- 
swer, peevishly,  that  they  are  thoughtful  and 
fatigued.  This,  as  you  well  know  is  very  un- 
pleasant, and  you  would  gladly  soothe  them,  if 
you  knew  how,  into  better  temper  :  What  think 
you  is  the  true  cause  ?  I  am  afraid  they  do  not 
much  like  this  American  business  which  you 
hear  so  much  of;  and  that  their  consciences  are 
not  altogether  at  ease.' 

"  Our  Author  having  treated  of  the  nature 
of  the  present  unhappy  differences  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  Colonies,  puts  the  following  case, 
not  only  to  elucidate  the  reasoning  and  distinc- 
tions he  has  made  use  of,  but  at  the  same  time 
to  explain  fully  and  fairly  the  expediency  or  in- 
expediency, justice  or  injustice,  of  the  American 
laws. 

" '  Let  us  suppose,  that  that  domestic  and  grave 
legislator,  a  husband,  should,  after  a  fit  of  spleen, 
say,  Madam,  or  my  dear,  I  find  my  finances  are 
in  much  disorder,  and  I  have  been  thinking  of 
a  new  resource.  Your  pin  money,  my  dear,  is 
considerable.  You  must  pay  me  thirty  per  cent, 
upon  the  produce.  You  cannot  be  in  earnest, 
says  the  Lady,  you  know  that  every  farthing  of 
it  is  laid  out  for  our  mutual  advantage.  It  is 
laid  out  in  necessary  articles  for  my  person. 
What  expence,  what  extravagance  am  I  guilty 

288 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

of?  Besides,  I  buy  every  thing  of  your  own 
tenants,  who  are  thereby  enabled  to  pay  their 
rents  and  employ  other  tenants,  who,  again,  are 
enabled  to  pay  theirs,  so  that  your  estate  is  im- 
proved to  the  whole  amount ;  whereas,  if  you 
seize  upon  my  pin  money,  not  only  I  shall  be 
dishonoured  and  impoverished,  but  your  tenants 
will  break  and  your  rents  fail,  and  you  will 
thereby  lose  power  without  gaining  wealth.  These 
arguments  are  too  artificial,  Madam,  I  cannot 
wait  this  circuitous  course  of  things :  I  am  the 
sole  judge  of  expediency,  and  the  money  must  be 
paid.  But,  my  dear  life,  says  the  Lady,  is  not 
this  very  unjust?  Is  there  not  a  solemn  compact 
between  us  ?  Have  not  you,  for  various  consid- 
erations, assigned  me  this  separate  article,  and 
given  me  a  power  to  tax,  as  it  were,  my  own 
pocket  (without  accounting  to  you)  for  my  own 
more  peculiar  necessaries  and  ornaments  ?  You 
have  no  right,  my  dear,  to  dispense  with  the 
obligations  of  justice.  You  question  my  author- 
ity, Madam  ?  I  am  very  unwilling  to  do  it,  Sir ; 
if  you  are  in  want  of  money,  let  me  voluntarily 
assist  you.  Do  not  deprive  me  of  that  merit. 
Put  my  affection  to  the  proof.  You  have  hith- 
erto found  the  sincerity  of  it.  It  is  my  duty  to 
run  all  fortunes  with  you,  in  sickness  and  in 
health.  No  extremity  shall  make  me  desert 
you.  Only,  do  not  commit  injustice.  Give  me 

289 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

the  merit  of  my  love  and  obedience.  Let  it  be 
a  reasonable  service.  Do  not  render  yourself 
unworthy  of  obedience  in  the  very  act  by  which 
you  demand  it.  I  can  be  obedient,  but  not  base. 
A  wife,  but  not  a  slave. — This  is  the  language 
of  rebellion,  Madam. — This  is  the  tone  of  tyr- 
anny, Sir. — Death  and  hell !  whips  and  chains 
shall  enforce  obedience. — I  appeal  to  the  law, 
Sir ;  and  had  rather  submit  to  separation  than  in- 
justice. Hard  as  it  is,  let  me  rather  lose  your 
love  by  just  resistance,  than  incur  your  contempt, 
which  my  free  soul  cannot  bear,  by  base  and  ser- 
vile  submission. — This,  Ladies,  is  exactly  the  case 
between  England  and  America,  except  that  a 
wife  would  be  certain  of  relief  from  the  law, 
whereas  America  must  trust  to  the  uncertain 
decision  of  arms,  and  be  compelled,  at  the  best, 
to  involve  in  final  destruction  the  very  power 
she  loves  and  wishes  to  obey. — Now,  Ladies, 
how  noble,  how  glorious  would  it  be  to  the  fe- 
male character,  if  you  would  redeem  your  hus- 
bands from  guilt,  and  your  country  from  ruin  ? 
To  this  end,  I  will  relate  a  fact,  and  leave  you 
to  apply  the  tale. 

"  '  In  the  reign  of  Charles  the  First,  the 
crown  claimed  a  power  of  taxing  the  people  of 
England,  as  the  parliament  now  does  the  people 
of  America,  without  their  consent.  This  claim 
of  right  was  founded  upon  the  pretence  of  ur- 

290 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL   WOMEN 

gent  necessity,  of  which  the  crown  affirmed  it- 
self to  be  the  only  judge.  This  tax  was  called 
ship-money.  The  right  was  questioned,  and  the 
point  came  before  the  Judges  for  a  legal  deci- 
sion. At  this  time  the  Judges  held  their  places 
during  pleasure,  and  it  was  not  therefore  doubted 
but  that  judgment  would  be  given  for  the  crown. 
On  this  occasion,  the  wife  of  one  of  those  Judges 
exhorted  her  husband  to  follow  the  dictates  of 
his  conscience.  He  frankly  confessed  that  the 
judgment  he  was  about  to  give  was  contrary  to 
law,  but  he  reminded  her,  that  if  he  respected 
his  conscience,  he  should  certainly  be  dismissed ; 
and  he  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  reducing 
her  to  poverty  and  distress.  On  this  occasion 
she  discovered  the  nobleness  of  her  soul.  She 
embraced  him  indeed,  but  she  treated  his  false 
tenderness  and  ignoble  sentiment  with  generous 
disdain.  She  professed  the  most  ardent  desire 
of  encountering  the  hardest  poverty  in  the  cause 
of  virtue.  She  solicited,  she  implored  that  he 
would  not  make  himself  unworthy  of  her  affec- 
tion, but  that  he  would  give  her  the  supreme 
satisfaction  of  esteeming  the  man  whom  she  was 
bound  to  obey.  She  willingly  offered  her  days 
to  the  severest  labour,  upon  condition  only  that 
she  might  pass  the  night  in  the  bosom  of  an  in- 
nocent and  virtuous  man.  She  prevailed,  and,  in 
the  event,  not  only  saved  her  husband  from  guilt 


THE  BOSTON  PORT  BILL 

and  dishonour,  but  from  prisons  and  impeach- 
ments, in  which  the  rest  of  the  Judges  were 
finally  involved.' ' 

In  addition  to  this  acknowledgment  of  the 
importance  of  securing  the  assistance  of  the  wo- 
men of  England  to  the  movement  under  way  to 
secure  justice  for  the  American  colonies,  the 
above  quoted  review  drew  a  forcible  parallel  be- 
tween the  former  revolt  made  by  the  men  of 
England  against  the  "Ship-money  tax,"  and  the 
opposition  now  shown  by  the  men  of  America 
to  taxes  thrust  upon  them  by  a  Parliament  in 
which  they  were  unrepresented.  In  the  first 
case  a  tax  to  raise  funds  for  the  support  of  the 
Royal  Navy  was  imposed  by  the  King  without 
the  consent  of  his  Parliament,  and  its  constitu- 
tionality upheld  by  a  Bench  of  Judges,  all  of 
whom  save  Justice  Crook  allowed  themselves  to 
do  the  King's  bidding.  In  the  present  case  the 
taxes  were  laid  by  a  Parliament,  filled  with  the 
King's  "  placemen  and  pensioners,"  upon  a  peo- 
ple who  had  long  enjoyed  the  right  of  self-man- 
agement of  their  fiscal  affairs.  The  story  of 
Hampden's  bitter  opposition  to  this  tax,  his  de- 
feat in  the  Courts,  the  rising  of  Parliament 
against  the  arbitrary  power  of  the  King  and  the 
impeachment  and  punishment  of  the  corrupt 
judges,  was  a  familiar  one,  and  often  cited  by 
the  advocates  of  America's  cause,  in  their  pro- 


29* 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF   COLONIAL  WOMEN 

testations  against  the  arbitrary  measures  enacted 
against  the  American  colonies. 

An  account  of  a  meeting  of  A  Society  of 
Patriotic  Ladies  at  Edenton,  in  North  Carolina, 
appeared  in  various  English  papers  about  the 
middle  of  January,  1775.  Possibly  the  impos- 
ing list  of  signatures  attached  to  the  resolutions 
passed  at  this  gathering  (see  page  314)  caused 
our  cartoonist  to  select  this  incident  as  one 
fairly  representative  of  the  moral  and  physical 
support  the  women  of  the  Colonies  were  con- 
tributing to  the  common  cause. 

No  reader  of  English  newspapers,  during 
the  long-protracted  dispute  between  the  King 
and  the  colonies,  could  have  remained  ignorant 
of  the  political  activities  of  the  colonial  women. 
The  earliest  mention  I  have  been  able  to  find  in 
the  English  press,  of  their  entrance  into  the  po- 
litical arena,  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of 
December  loth— I2th,  1767,  at  the  time  the  va- 
rious Non-Importation  agreements  were  voted 
as  a  means  of  combating  the  "Acts  of  1767." 
A  spirit  of  economy  was  then  being  cultivated, 
and  the  "candles"  of  industry  and  frugality, 
which  had  been  advocated  by  Franklin,  in  a  let- 
ter to  Charles  Thomson  (see  page  22)  two  years 
before,  were  burning  brightly  throughout  Amer- 
ica. In  the  following  words  the  people  of  Eng- 
land learned  of  the  determination  of  the  women 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


of  Boston  to  practice  the  retrenchment  then  so 
widely  advocated : 

"Boston,  New  England,  Nov.  2nd.  In  a  large 
circle  of  ladies  in  this  town,  it  was  unanimously 
agreed  to  lay  aside  the  use  of  ribbons  &c.,  for 
which  there  has  been  so  great  a  resort  to  mil- 
liners in  times  past.  It  is  hoped  that  this  resolu- 
tion will  be  followed  by  others  of  the  sex  through- 
out the  province.  We  must  after  all  our  efforts 
depend  greatly  upon  the  female  sex  for  the  in- 
troduction of  economy  among  us  :  And  it  is  as- 
sured that  their  utmost  aid  will  not  be  wanting." 

The  question  of  the  discontinuance  of  the 
use  of  tea  had  also  become  all-absorbing  in  the 
colonies.  This  beverage  was  then  in  even  more 
general  use  than  at  present,  coffee  being  but  lit- 
tle drunk  at  this  period.  The  cheapness  of  the 
former  and  its  stimulating  effect  made  it  a  neces- 
sity, hence  a  suitable  substitute  was  eagerly  sought. 
Shortly  after  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act  the 
disuse  of  tea  from  motives  of  economy  was  be- 
ing considered  in  the  Colonies,  although  at  this 
time  it  had  not  been  selected  for  taxation.  The 
following  makeshift  was  suggested  in  a  letter  from 
New  York  which  appeared  in  the  London  Chron- 
icle of  December  I2th-i4th,  1765:  "I  have 
wrote  to  you  by  this  opportunity :  since  which 
the  abolishing  the  practice  of  drinking  tea  in 
America  is  much  talked  of  unless  the  Stamp  Act 


294 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

is  repealed :  This  is  practicable,  as  ground  In- 
dian corn  will  be  substituted  for  breakfast  in  lieu 
of  tea,  and  is  the  wholesomest  food  that  is  made 
use  of  in  America." 

Indian  corn  not  having  proven  a  success  as 
a  beverage,  and  tea  having  become  an  article  of 
special  taxation,  many  other  substitutes  for  this 
delightful  but  politically  detested  article  of  daily 
consumption  were  suggested  in  the  news  columns 
of  the  colonial  press.  The  following  article, 
which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  De- 
cember 29th~3ist,  1767,  while  primarily  sound- 
ing the  praises  of  a  native  shrub,  told  of  another 
household  sacrifice  being  made  in  the  Colonies 
in  support  of  constitutional  freedom  so  unjustly 
attacked. 

"  Boston,  New-England,  Nov.  ^th.  The  use 
of  Hyperion  or  Labradore  tea,  is  every  day  com- 
ing into  more  general  vogue  among  people  of 
all  ranks.  The  virtues  of  the  plant  or  shrub 
from  which  this  delicate  tea  is  gathered,  were 
first  discovered  by  the  aborigines,  and  from  them 
the  Canadians  learned  them.  It  soon  became 
into  such  repute,  that  quantities  were  sent  to 
France,  where,  it  is  said,  it  was  soon  in  such  de- 
mand, as  alarmed  the  French  East-India  Com- 
pany, and  procured  an  ordinance  prohibiting  the 
importation  of  any  more  on  the  pain  of  death. 
So  little  do  some  politicians  regard  the  health  or 

*95 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

even  the  life  of  man,  when  either  of  them  ap- 
pear to  be  incompatible  with  their  particular  in- 
terests, views  and  projects.  Before  the  cession 
of  Canada  to  Great  Britain,  we  knew  little  or 
nothing  of  this  most  excellent  herb  ;  but  since 
that  we  have  been  taught  to  find  it  growing  on 
every  hill  and  dale,  between  the  lat.  40  and  60. 
It  is  to  be  found  all  over  New  England  in  great 
plenty,  and  that  of  the  best  quality,  particularly 
on  the  banks  of  Penobscot,  Kennebeck,  Niche- 
wannock,  and  Merrimac.  Immense  quantities 
may  be  found  on  the  mountains  near  the  great 
lakes. 

"  Nothing  short  of  the  highest  degree  of  in- 
fatuation and  madness  could  ever  have  prevailed 
with  us  to  introduce  unwholesome  exoticks.  The 
voice  of  reason  cries  louder  than  ever  for  their 
perpetual  banishment ;  and  the  further  use  of 
them  must  be  accounted  for  but  by  the  source  of 
invincible  prejudice.  This  indeed  sometimes  leads 
to  a  preference  of  a  rank  poison,  if  far  fetched 
and  dear  bought,  to  the  most  salubrious  draught 
at  hand,  with  little  pains  or  cost,  though  of  in- 
estimable value.'* 

The  same  newspaper,  two  days  later,  by  print- 
ing the  appended  address,  called  the  attention  of 
its  readers  to  the  thoroughness  of  the  New  Eng- . 
landers'  efforts  to  restrict  trade  with  England,  and 
gave  the  manufacturers   of  the  mother  country 

296 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

a  warning  that  the  magnificent  American  trade 
to  which  much  of  England's  prosperity  was  due, 
was  on  the  wane. 

"  Boston,  New  England,  November  $th.  The 
following  Address  to  the  Ladies  of  North  Amer- 
ica, has  appeared  in  our  Gazette,  and  been  well 
received. 

"  '  Ladies  :  I  am  one  of  those  who  think  it 
not  only  high  time  but  of  the  last  importance, 
that  you  should  be  publickly  addressed :  and  of 
the  many  ingenious  pens,  which  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years  have  informed  and  enlightened 
this  country,  I  have  often  wished  that  at  least 
some  one  of  them  had  been  more  particularly 
devoted  to  your  service.  This  would  have  agree- 
ably prevented  me  in  an  attempt  to  which  I  find 
myself  in  all  respects  but  too  unequal.  Yet  re- 
lying on  your  good  sense  and  candour,  I  venture 
to  lay  at  your  feet  a  few  well  intended  senti- 
ments, which  though  in  a  plain  home-spun  garb, 
I  hope  will  not  offend.  I  am  convinced  that  at 
this  present  it  is  not  only  in  your  inclination  and 
will,  but  also  in  your  power,  to  effect  more  in 
favour  of  your  country,  than  an  army  of  an  hun- 
dred thousand  men  ;  and  indeed  more  than  all 
the  armed  men  on  this  vast  continent.  Can  a 
woman  forget  her  ornaments  ?  Yes,  I  know  she 
can.  Deborah  once  judged  Israel,  and  some 
think  it  was  never  judged  much  better  after- 

»97 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

wards.  But  what  thought  Deborah  or  Jael  of 
their  ornaments,  when  the  one  was  contriving, 
and  the  other  driving  the  nail  that  would  go  ? 
What  thought  beautiful  Esther  of  her  ornaments, 
when  those  of  her  kindred  and  household  were 
in  immediate  and  imminent  danger,  by  the  de- 
cree treacherously  obtained  by  Haman,  from  the 
mouth  of  her  beloved  and  almost  adored  Lord 
Ahasuerus  the  Great  ?  What  thought  Judith  of 
her  ornaments,  when  she  was  severing  the  head 
of  Holofernes  from  his  body,  or  while  flying  with 
the  prize  to  the  relief  of  her  despairing  friends  ? 
The  time  would  fail  me,  were  I  to  recount  the 
wondrous  deeds  and  mighty  achievements  of  re- 
nowned and  honourable  women  in  all  ages. 

"<  I  have  but  alluded  to  a  few  instances,  among 
many,  of  divine  heroism  in  your  sex,  which  hath 
often  saved  a  country,  when  the  dull  plodding 
of  man  has  been  totally  at  a  plunge.  How  near 
we  are  to  such  a  crisis,  is  left  to  the  conjecture 
of  others.  It  would  be  a  little  out  of  nature  to 
expect  the  birth  and  exploits  of  heroines  to  take 
place  before  those  of  heroes.  I  believe  we  shall 
be  furnished  with  both  in  their  order,  as  occa- 
sion may  require.  All  I  think  at  present  that 
can  be  reasonably  expected  or  desired  of  you,  is 
to  consent  to  lay  aside  all  superfluous  ornaments 
for  a  season — after  which  they  shall  be  surely 
returned  to  you  again  with  interest. — You  shall 

298 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF   COLONIAL  WOMEN 

be  cloathed  in  purple  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linnen 
of  our  own,  and  with  other  glorious  apparel ; 
which,  if  possible,  shall  add  a  lustre  to  your 
charms.' ' 

Attempts  were  made  to  cultivate  the  tea  plant 
in  America,  but  without  the  success  the  patriotic 
efforts  warranted,  although  a  paragraph  which 
appeared  in  the  English  press  gravely  informed 
its  readers  that  "A  gentleman  at  Boston  has  pro- 
cured and  furnished  many  persons  with  some  of 
the  genuine  tea  plants  from  the  East  Indies, 
which  thrive  and  grow  very  well  in  these  cli- 
mates. The  production  of  this  article  among  us 
will  be  an  immense  saving  to  America.  Many 
people  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  country  pro- 
duces this  plant  simultaneously,  and  is  plentifully 
stocked  with  it." 

The  decision  to  abstain  from  trade  with  Eng- 
land meant  the  loss  of  many  comforts  and  neces- 
sities of  life  in  America,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
England's  Colonial  Policy,  almost  from  its  in- 
ception, was  formulated  with  the  view  of  dis- 
couraging manufacturing  in  her  colonies,  and 
making  them  dependent  upon  Great  Britain  for 
all  manufactured  articles.  After  the  passage  of 
the  Stamp  Act,  however,  numerous  factories 
were  started  in  America  for  the  purpose  of  sup- 
plying articles  for  domestic  consumption,  and, 
after  the  various  Non-Importation  Agreements 

299 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

resulting  from  the  "Acts  of  1767"  were  en- 
forced, the  English  newspapers  fairly  teemed 
with  descriptions  of  the  efforts  made  to  manu- 
facture goods  in  this  country,  the  sale  of  which 
had  hitherto  enriched  the  manufacturers  of 
Leeds,  Manchester  and  Birmingham. 

One  question  of  supreme  importance  was 
the  supply  of  clothing,  and  the  English  mer- 
chants were  kept  informed  through  the  medium 
of  their  press  of  the  founding  of  industries  here 
for  the  manufacture  of  this  necessity  and  also  of 
the  great  attention  being  paid  to  the  breeding 
of  sheep.  At  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act,  so 
pressing  had  this  need  become,  that  the  disuse 
of  sheep  and  lambs  for  food  was  advocated,  their 
fleeces  being  indispensable  to  the  running  of 
these  newly  started  woolen  manufactories.  Agree- 
ments such  as  the  one  here  given  (which  ap- 
peared in  the  London  Chronicle  of  March  29th— 
April  ist,  1766)  were  freely  entered  into  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  : 

"New  Torky  February  ijth.  The  following 
agreement  has  been  subscribed  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  the  principal  inhabitants  of  this  city,  and 
new  subscribers  are  daily  added. 

"  '  We  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  New 
York  do  hereby  engage  and  promise,  that  we 
will  not  buy  or  suffer  to  be  bought  for  our  use, 
any  lamb  before  the  first  day  of  August  next, 

300 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

and  that  we  will  not  buy  any  meat  from  any 
butcher,  that  shall  expose  any  lamb  to  sale  be- 
fore the  day  aforesaid,  and  will  give  all  manner 
of  discountenance  to  such  butchers  for  the  future. 
Given  under  our  hands  at  New  York  this  3rd 
of  February,  1766.' J 

As  fairly  representative  of  the  information 
which  the  Englishmen  of  the  day  received  con- 
cerning the  doings  of  the  women  and  men  of 
America  in  endeavouring  to  nullify  the  effect  of 
the  abhorrent  "Acts  of  1767,"  an  extract  is  ap- 
pended which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle 
of  November  5th-8th,  1768: 

"Boston,  (New  England,]  October  6th.  We 
hear,  there  are  above  200  families  in  this  town 
that  have  agreed  not  to  use  any  more  tea.  We 
also  hear  the  inhabitants  of  Charles-Town  have 
unanimously  agreed  to  the  same. 

"  We  hear  from  Brookfield,  that  Mr.  Joshua 
Upham  of  that  town,  a  Gentleman  of  the  Law, 
and  his  two  brothers,  with  a  number  of  other 
Gentlemen,  have  lately  erected  a  building  fifty 
feet  in  length,  and  two  stories  high,  for  a  man- 
ufactory-house, and  are  collecting  tradesmen  of 
several  sorts  for  the  woollen  manufactory,  and 
they  propose  to  keep  a  large  number  of  looms 
constantly  at  work. 

"We  hear  from  Wilbraham,  a  part  of  Spring- 
field, that  a  number  of  Gentlemen  have  agreed  to- 

301 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

gather  to  purchase  2000  sheep,  to  be  pastured  upon 
the  plains  there,  under  the  care  of  a  shepherd." 

That  the  women  of  the  Colonies  enthusias- 
tically and  skillfully  furnished  the  necessities, 
which  had  hitherto  been  obtained  from  the  fac- 
tories of  England,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fol- 
lowing two  extracts  from  the  London  Chronicle 
under  dates  of  December  I5th-i7th,  1768,  and 
August  ist~3rd,  1769: 

"Boston,  New  England,  October  26th.  We 
hear  from  Roxbury,  that  one  day  last  week  near 
60  young  women  of  that  place  met  together  at 
the  Minister's  House,  early  in  the  morning,  and 
gave  Mrs.  Adams  the  materials  for,  and  the 
spinning  of,  above  one  hundred  score  of  linen 
yarn ;  such  an  unusual  and  beautiful  appearance 
drew  a  great  number  of  spectators  from  the  town 
and  country,  who  all  expressed  the  highest  sat- 
isfaction at  such  an  example  of  industry." 

"Newport,  Rhode  Island,  June  jrd.  There 
is  in  this  town  a  sample  of  cloth,  made  by  a 
young  Lady  here,  which  is  equal  in  width,  fine- 
ness, and  goodness,  to  an  English  plain  of  6s. 
sterling  per  yard ;  but  cost,  with  every  charge 
upon  it,  not  quite  35.  9d.  sterling  per  yard. 

"  By  the  best  calculation,  there  is  more  wool 
raised  in  this  colony  than  would  cloath  the  in- 
habitants ;  and  there  might  easily  be  raised 
double  that  quantity  in  three  years  time." 

302 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

The  unanimity  with  which  the  men  of  Vir- 
ginia had  acted,  in  resenting  the  attacks  made  by 
Parliament  upon  the  government  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Massachusetts-Bay  in  1769,  has  been  de- 
scribed in  a  previous  chapter.  Equally  strong 
in  representing  the  temper  of  the  people,  must 
have  appeared  the  scene  described  in  the  follow- 
ing letter  published  in  the  London  Chronicle  of 
April  1 7th— 1 9th,  1770. 

"  Extract  of  a  Letter  from  Williams  burgh,  (in 
Virginia}  January  j>. 

"  '  On  Wednesday  evening  the  Honourable 
the  Speaker,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, gave  a  ball  at  the  capitol  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  his  Excellency  Lord  Botetourt ;  and  the 
same  patriotic  spirit  which  gave  rise  to  the  asso- 
ciation of  the  Gentlemen  on  a  late  event,  was 
most  agreeably  manifested  in  the  dress  of  the 
Ladies  on  this  occasion,  who  to  the  number  of 
near  one  hundred,  appeared  in  homespun  gowns ; 
a  lively  and  striking  instance  of  their  acquies- 
cence and  concurrence  in  whatever  be  the  true 
and  essential  interest  of  their  country.  It  is  to 
be  wished  that  all  assemblies  of  American  Ladies 
would  exhibit  a  like  example  of  public  virtue 
and  private  oeconomy,  so  amiably  united. 
Not  all  the  gems  that  sparkle  in  the  mine, 
Can  make  the  Fair  with  so  much  lustre 
shine.' " 


303 


THE  BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

It  is  not  difficult  to  picture  the  appearance 
of  the  great  room  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  (a 
view  of  which  building  appears  in  the  initial 
letter  of  Chapter  V)  on  that  festal  winter  evening, 
filled  as  it  was  with  the  fair  women  of  Virginia, 
dressed  in  garments  of  home  manufacture, — 
symbolic  of  their  industry  and  patriotism, — and 
dancing  in  honour  of  a  Governor,  who,  though 
loyal  to  his  King,  needed  no  such  manifestation 
of  the  spirit  of  Virginia  to  enlist  his  sympathies 
in  the  cause  of  the  people. 

Two  weeks  before  the  publication  of  the 
letter  describing  this  practical  demonstration  of 
the  part  the  dames  of  Virginia  were  industriously 
playing  in  the  prologue  to  the  tragedy  which 
precipitated  the  American  Revolution,  the  Lloyds 
Evening  Post  had  printed  the  following  agree- 
ment, voted  by  the  women  of  Boston  in  support 
of  the  action  taken  by  the  merchants  of  that 
town. 

"  Boston,  New  England,  January  31.  The 
following  is  a  copy  of  the  agreement  of  the 
Ladies  in  this  town,  against  drinking  tea,  until 
the  Revenue  Acts  are  repealed: 

"'At  a  time  when  our  invaluable  rights  and 
privileges  are  attack'd  in  an  unconstitutional  and 
most  alarming  manner,  and  as  we  find  we  were, 
reproached  for  not  being  so  ready  as  could  be 
desired  to  lend  our  assistance,  we  think  it  our 


3°4 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

duty  perfectly  to  concur  with  the  true  friends  of 
Liberty  in  all  the  measures  they  have  taken  to 
save  this  abused  Country  from  ruin  and  slavery ; 
and  particularly,  we  join  with  the  very  respecta- 
ble body  of  Merchants,  and  other  inhabitants  of 
this  town,  who  met  in  Faneuil-Hall  the  23d  of 
this  instant,  in  their  resolutions  totally  to  abstain 
from  the  use  of  Tea :  And  as  the  greatest  part 
of  the  revenue  arising  by  virtue  of  the  late  Acts 
is  produced  from  the  duty  paid  upon  Tea,  which 
revenue  is  wholly  expended  to  support  the  Ameri- 
can Board  of  Commissioners :  We  the  Subscrib- 
ers do  strictly  engage,  that  we  will  totally  abstain 
from  the  use  of  that  article  (sickness  excepted) 
not  only  in  our  respective  families,  but  that  we 
will  absolutely  refuse  it,  if  it  should  be  offered 
to  us  upon  any  occasion  whatsoever. 

"'  This  agreement  we  chearfully  come  into,  as 
we  believe  the  very  distressed  situation  of  our 
Country  requires  it,  and  we  do  hereby  oblige 
ourselves  religiously  to  observe  it,  till  the  late 
Revenue  Acts  are  repealed.' 

"  To  the  above  agreement,  the  Mistresses  of 
their  respective  families  (only)  are  come  in,  to 
the  number  of  300. 

"  Note,  In  the  above  number,  the  worthy 
Ladies  of  the  highest  rank  and  influence  (that 
could  be  waited  on  in  so  short  a  time)  are  in- 
cluded." 


305 


THE    BOSTON   PORT    BILL 

The  spirit  of  the  American  women  was 
measured  not  alone  by  their  patriotic  abstinence 
from  tea-drinking,  and  in  their  example  of  fru- 
gality and  industry  in  matters  of  dress,  for  under 
date  of  November  7th~9th,  1769,  the  newspaper 
so  frequently  quoted  thus  had  noted  the  Colonial 
feminine  interest  in  the  politics  of  the  time,  and 
eagerness  for  knowledge  of  the  constitutional 
questions  in  dispute  in  America. 

"  Extract  of  a  Letter  from  a  Gentleman  at 
Boston  in  New-England,  to  his  Friend  in  London 
dated  August  ij,  Ij6y. — '  The  North  Ameri- 
cans, though  they  have  prohibited  the  importa- 
tion of  books  have  paid  Mrs.  Macaulay  the 
compliment  of  allowing  the  free  sale  of  her  His- 
tory of  England  in  all  the  Colonies,  and  the 
Ladies  of  America  in  particular  read  her  His- 
tory with  great  avidity  and  speak  of  her  with  the 
greatest  applause.'  ' 

The  English  author  so  highly  complimented 
in  the  above  paragraph  was  Mrs.  Catharine  Ma- 
caulay, the  distinguished  author  of  the  "  History 
of  England  from  the  Accession  of  James  the 
First  to  that  of  the  Brunswick  Line,"  the  first 
volume  of  which  appeared  in  1763  and  met  such 
an  enthusiastic  reception  among  the  Whig  parti- 
sans, that  the  London  publishers  competed  strenu- 
ously for  the  right  to  bring  out  each  succeeding 
part.  Mrs.  Macaulay  was  imbued  with  strong 

306 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

republican  principles  and  treated  her  subject  in  a 
manner  diametrically  opposed  to  the  monarch- 
ical and  Jacobinian  theory  which  David  Hume 
exploited  in  his  "  History  of  England  from  the 
Invasion  of  Julius  Caesar  to  the  Revolution  in 
1688,"  published  shortly  before.  She  at  once 
became  the  idol  of  the  Whig  party  and  William 
Pitt  delivered  before  the  House  of  Commons  a 
panegyric  upon  the  manner  in  which  she  han- 
dled the  constitutional  questions  involved.  A 
quotation  from  the  first  volume  of  her  history 
"  Government,  a  Power  Delegated  for  the  Hap- 
piness of  Mankind,  conducted  by  Wisdom,  Jus- 
tice and  Mercy  "  became  a  popular  toast,  and 
her  portrait  along  with  that  of  John  Dickinson, 
the  author  of  the  "  Farmer's  Letters,"  embel- 
lished an  ALMANACK  for  the  year  of  our 
LORD  CHRIST  1772,  published  in  Boston  by 
Nathaniel  Ames.  In  connection  with  this  asso- 
ciation of  these  two  personages  by  a  Boston  pub- 
lisher, it  is  interesting  to  note  that  six  years 
later,  William  Duesbury,  England's  greatest 
manufacturer  of  porcelain,  put  upon  the  Eng- 
lish market  an  exquisitely  modelled  porcelain 
statuette  of  Mrs.  Macaulay  which  pictured  her 
leaning  on  a  pedestal,  upon  the  sides  of  which 
appear,  along  with  the  names  of  Sidney,  Locke, 
Hampden,  etc.,  that  of  our  own  Dickinson,  and 
the  words  American  Congress,  so  associated  was 

307 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


Mrs.  Macaulay  with  the  fight  for  constitutional 
liberty  then  waging  in  the  English  colonies. 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  throughout  the 
eight  long  years  which  preceded  the  American 
Revolution,  during  which  time  tea  was  an  ob- 
ject of  special  taxation,  this  exotic  beverage  was 
unknown  in  the  dining  room  of  the  patriotic 
colonial  household,  for  the  long  coast  line  and 
inefficient  custom  service  allowed  the  importa- 
tion from  Holland  of  thousands  of  chests  of  tea, 
which  paid  no  tribute  to  the  royal  exchequer. 

However,  after  the  destruction  of  the  tea  in 
Boston  had  brought  to  an  issue  the  prolonged 
controversy  between  the  Ministry  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Massachusetts  Bay,  tea  became  the  rec- 
ognized symbol  of  tyranny,  and  its  disuse  gen- 
eral. The  following  quaint  series  of  resolutions 
which  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  March 
29th—  31  st,  1774,  as  emanating  from  the  ladies 
of  Boston,  told  its  readers  of  the  approbation  the 
"  Boston  Tea  Party  "  met  with  among  the  fair 
sex  of  that  town  : 

"  To  the  PRINTER  of  the  LONDON  CHRONICLE. 
"  SIR  : 

"  The  following  appeared  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Gazette  of  Jan.  31,  perhaps  it  may  amuse 
many  of  your  Readers,  as  it  did, 

Your's  &c. 

G  -  . 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

"  We  hear  that  a  number  of  the  fair  Daugh- 
ters of  Liberty  have  lately  entered  into  the  fol- 
lowing spirited  RESOLVES : 

I.  That  the  Destruction   of  the  East-India 
Tea,  imported  among  us,  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  Happiness  of  America. 

II.  That  the  said  Tea  ought  to  be   looked 
upon  as   a  Traitor  to   the  MAJESTY  of  the 
PEOPLE,  and  treated  accordingly. 

III.  That  all  the  Aiders,  Abettors,  Associ- 
ates and  Accomplices,  of  said  Tea,  are  equally 
guilty  of  High  Treason. 

IV.  That  for  the  Credit  of  the  noble  Cause 
we  are  engaged  in,  all  our  Proceedings,  at  this 
alarming  Crisis,  shall  be  strictly  conformable  to 
Law. 

V.  That  as  hanging,   drawing  and  quarter- 
ing, are   the  Punishments  inflicted   by  Law  in 
Cases  of  High-Treason,  we  are  determined,  con- 
stantly to  assemble   at  each  other's   Houses,  to 
HANG  the  Tea-Kettle,  DRAW  the  Tea,  and 
QUARTER  the  Toast." 

Three  weeks  previous  to  the  appearance  of 
the  above  letter,  the  London  Daily  Advertiser 
had  noted  in  the  following  extract,  that  Ameri- 
can women  were  not  content,  in  this  crisis  of 
their  country's  history,  with  the  mere  passage 
of  self-denying  resolutions  against  the  use  of  tea, 
but  were  also,  in  ways  of  their  own  devising, 

309 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

actively  assisting  in  carrying  out  the  measures 
so  widely  adopted : 

"  Newport,  Rhode-Island,  January  loth.  Last 
Wednesday  57  Ladies,  of  Bedford,  in  Dartmouth, 
had  a  Meeting,  at  which  they  entered  into  an 
Agreement  not  to  use  any  more  India  Tea :  And 
having  heard  that  a  Gentleman  there  had  lately 
bought  some,  they  requested  he  would  imme- 
diately return  the  same,  which  he  complied  with, 
upon  which  the  Ladies  treated  him  with  a  Glass 
of  this  Country  Wine,  and  dismissed  him,  highly 
pleased  with  their  exemplary  Conduct,  for  which 
a  Number  of  Gentlemen  present  gave  him  three 
Cheers  in  Approbation  of  his  noble  Behaviour." 

A  loyalist's  impressions  of  the  influence  ex- 
erted by  American  women  in  swelling  the  ranks 
of  the  companies  of  minute-men  then  forming, 
and  the  method  of  moral  suasion  they  used, 
was  cited  in  the  Middlesex  Journal  of  November 
22nd— 24th,  1774,  in  an  amusing  "  Extract  from 
a  letter  from  Boston  Dated  October  2$th.  '  Our 
country,  it  is  true,  wears  a  very  military  appear- 
ance, and  between  ourselves,  that  is  the  only 
serious  air  either  party  wishes  to  put  on.  For 
our  parts,  the  Americans  would  certainly  have 
abandoned  the  cause  long  ago  and  bowed  to  the 
yoke,  but  that  a  certain  epidemical  kind  of 
phrenzy  runs  through  our  fair  country  women, 
which  outdoes  all  the  pretended  patriotic  virtue 

310 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF   COLONIAL  WOMEN 

of  the  more  robustic  males  : — these  little  mis- 
chief making  devils  have  entered  into  an  almost 
unanimous  association  that  any  man  ivho  shall 
basely  and  cowardly  give  up  the  public  cause  of  free- 
dom, shall  from  that  moment  be  discarded  [from\ 
their  assemblies,  and  no  future  contrition  shall  be  able 
to  atone  for  the  crime.  This  has  had  a  wonderful 
effect,  and  not  a  little  served  to  increase  the  pro- 
vincial forces.' ' 

The  above  citations  from  the  English  press 
of  the  frugality,  industry  and  cheerful  abstinence 
from  many  of  the  comforts  of  life  displayed  by 
the  women  of  the  American  Colonies  have  been 
quoted  to  demonstrate  that  the  political  activi- 
ties of  the  Colonial  women  were  well  known 
to  the  public  on  whom  our  cartoonist  depended 
for  a  market  for  the  sale  of  his  prints.  The  es- 
pecial incident,  the  action  of  "A  SOCIETY  OF 
PATRIOTIC  LADIES  AT  EDENTON  in  NORTH 
CAROLINA,"  which  he  had  selected  as  being 
typical  of  the  attitude  of  the  women  in  the  Col- 
onies, was  described  in  several  of  the  London 
papers  about  the  middle  of  January,  1775.  The 
account  contained  in  the  Morning  Chronicle  and 
London  Advertiser  of  January  i6th,  1775,  has 
been  selected  for  reprinting,  as  this  paper  alone 
allotted  space  in  its  columns  to  the  lengthy  list 
of  signatures  attached  to  the  resolutions  passed 
at  this  meeting. 

3" 


THE   BOSTON  PORT   BILL 

The  Province  of  North  Carolina  had  not 
lagged  behind  the  other  Colonies  in  assertion  of 
her  rights.  At  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act  her 
Assembly  sent  a  protest  to  the  King  "against 
what  we  esteem  our  inherent  right  and  exclu- 
sive privilege  of  imposing  our  own  taxes."  The 
bearers  of  the  stamps  from  England  to  this  Col- 
ony met  with  no  kind  reception. 

North  Carolina  was  unrepresented  in  the 
New  York  Congress  in  1764,  owing  to  the  as- 
tuteness of  Governor  Tryon,  who,  acting  in 
the  interest  of  his  Sovereign,  abruptly  dissolved 
the  Assembly,  before  duly  accredited  representa- 
tives therefrom  could  be  chosen  to  attend  the 
proposed  Congress.  With  the  same  grasp  of  the 
situation,  Governor  Tryon  failed  to  call  the  rep- 
resentatives together  again  until  after  the  Stamp 
Act  had  been  repealed.  The  protracted  trouble 
with  the  Regulators  in  this  province,  about  which 
so  much  has  been  written,  was  in  reality  a  law- 
less uprising  of  the  people  in  the  upper  coun- 
ties, and  was  largely  due  to  the  distress  caused 
by  the  great  financial  depression  then  prevailing 
throughout  America.  The  fact  that  its  suppres- 
sion was  due  to  a  volunteer  body  of  militia, 
most  of  whom,  both  officers  and  men,  fought 
against  the  King  in  the  War  of  the  American 
Revolution,  deprives  this  affair  of  the  political 
importance  almost  universally  attributed  to  it. 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF   COLONIAL  WOMEN 

In  1773,  however,  the  Assembly  of  North 
Carolina  joined  the  other  Colonial  Assemblies 
in  choosing  a  Committee  of  Correspondence, 
and  in  August,  1774,  the  Provincial  Congress 
of  this  Colony,  called  in  defiance  of  the  Gover- 
nor, met  at  Newberne,  under  the  very  shadow 
of  the  Governor's  Palace,  an  engraving  of  which 
embellishes  the  tail  piece  at  the  end  of  Chapter 
III.  The  Deputies  first  elected  Samuel  John- 
ston, of  Edenton,  their  President,  and  then  passed 
a  series  of  resolutions  similar  in  purport  to  those 
which  had  just  been  voted  at  Williamsburg  by 
the  Delegates  of  their  Northern  neighbours. 

The  following  extract  from  the  Morning 
Chronicle  and  London  Advertiser  tells  of  the  Associ- 
ation formed  by  the  women  of  Edenton,  in  their 
endeavours  to  assist  in  carrying  out  the  resolutions 
taken  by  the  men  of  North  Carolina,  and  fur- 
nished the  cartoonist  with  the  subject  for  his 
illustration,  a  reproduction  of  which  appears 
upon  page  317: 

"  Extract  of  a  Letter  from  North  Carolina, 
Oct.  27. — 'The  provincial  deputies  of  North 
Carolina,  having  resolved  not  to  drink  any  more 
tea,  nor  wear  any  more  British  cloth,  &c.  many 
ladies  of  this  province  have  determined  to  give  a 
memorable  proof  of  their  patriotism,  and  have 
accordingly  entered  into  the  following  honoura- 
ble and  spirited  association.  I  send  it  to  you  to 

313 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 

shew  your  fair  countrywomen,  how  zealously 
and  faithfully  American  ladies  follow  the  lauda- 
ble example  of  their  husbands,  and  what  opposi- 
tion your  matchless  ministers  may  expect  to  re- 
ceive from  a  people,  thus  firmly  united  against 
them : — 

"«  Edenton,  North  Carolina,  Oct.  25. 
" '  As  we  cannot  be  indifferent  on  any  occa- 
sion that  appears  nearly  to  affect  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  our  country,  and  as  it  has  been 
thought  necessary,  for  the  public  good,  to  enter 
into  several  particular  resolves  by  a  meeting  of 
members  deputed  from  the  whole  Province,  it 
is  a  duty  which  we  owe,  not  only  to  our  near 
and  dear  connections,  who  have  concurred  in 
them,  but  to  ourselves,  who  are  essentially  in- 
terested in  their  welfare,  to  do  everything  as  far 
as  lies  in  our  power,  to  testify  our  sincere  adher- 
ence to  the  same ;  and  we  do  therefore  accord- 
ingly subscribe  this  paper,  as  a  witness  of  our  fixed 
intention  and  solemn  determination  to  do  so. 

Abigail  Charlton  Mary  Blount 

F.  Johnstone  Elizabeth  Creacy 

Margaret  Cathcart  Elizabeth  Patterson 

Anne  Johnstone  Jane  Wellwood 

Margaret  Pearson  Mary  Woolard 

Penelope  Dawson  Sarah  Beasley 

Jean  Blair  Susannah  Vail 

314 


POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 


Grace  Clayton 
Frances  Hall 
Mary  Jones 
Anne  Hall 
Rebecca  Bondfield 
Sarah  Littlejohn 
Penelope  Barker 
Elizabeth  P.  Ormond 
M.  Payne 
Elizabeth  Johnston 
Mary  Bonner 
Lydia  Bonner 
Sarah  Howe 
Lydia  Bennet 
Marion  Wells 
Anne  Anderson 
Sarah  Mathews 
Anne  Haughton 
Elizabeth  Bearsley 


Elizabeth  Vail 
Elizabeth  Vail 
Mary  Creacy 
Mary  Creacy 
Ruth  Benbury 
Sarah  Howcott 
Sarah  Hoskins 
Mary  Littledle 
Sarah  Vallentine 
Elizabeth  Crickett 
Elizabeth  Green 
Mary  Ramsey 
Anne  Horniblow 
Mary  Hunter 
Tresia  Cunningham 
Elizabeth  Roberts 
Elizabeth  Roberts 
Elizabeth  Roberts*" 


The  town  of  Edenton,  where  this  incident 
took  place,  is  delightfully  situated  on  an  arm 
of  Albemarle  Sound.  Its  majestic  church,  stately 
court-house,  and  numerous  beautiful  dwellings 
(an  interesting  example  of  which  appears  in 
the  initial  letter  at  the  head  of  this  chapter) 
erected  prior  to  the  Revolution  and  still  in  exist- 
ence, testify  to  its  flourishing  condition  at  that 
time.  The  town's  prosperity  was  largely  derived 


3*5 


THE  BOSTON  PORT  BILL 

from  its  fisheries  and  commerce  with  the  West 
Indian  Islands. 

Our  cartoonist  has  pictured  in  the  closing 
cartoon  of  the  series,  a  living  room  of  a  colonial 
home,  filled  with  women  both  of  high  and  lowly 
station,  matrons  and  maidens,  all  clothed  in  gar- 
ments the  materials  of  which  bore  no  trace  of 
having  emanated  from  the  looms  of  Manchester 
or  Birmingham.  Upon  the  table  in  the  centre 
of  the  gathering,  rests  a  large  sheet  of  paper, 
upon  which  has  been  inscribed  the  following 
paraphrase  of  the  resolutions  above  quoted  : 

"  We  the  Ladys  of  Edenton  do  hereby  Solemnly 
Engage  not  to  Conform  to  that  Pernicious  Custom  of 
Drinking  Tea,  or  that,  we  the  aforesaid  Ladys  will 
not  promote  ye  wear  of  any  Manufacture  from  Eng- 
land untill  such  time  that  all  Acts  which  tend  to 
Enslave  this  our  Native  Country  shall  be  Repealed" 

The  length  of  the  original  resolutions  pre- 
vented their  embodiment  in  the  picture,  yet  the 
substitute  in  no  way  weakened  the  force  of  the 
argument  told  in  this  cartoon,  for  the  quaint 
Anglo-Saxon  wording  found  therein  may  have 
delicately  reminded  the  reader  that  the  above 
agreement  was  entered  into  by  women  of  Eng- 
lish descent,  who,  though  now  living  across  the 
ocean,  were  entitled  to  the  privileges  enjoyed  by 
all  who  remained  at  home. 

316 


Plate  V. 


A  SOCIETY  of  PATRIOTIC  LADIES, 

E  DENT  (Win  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

London,  fri*A4  fir  "R.  Sjver  fc  .1  Brr.netl   N?Slts\F'jKf  Sou'  ai  lAt  AftJisfA   1$  North  ijjs 


377 


POLITICAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

A  touch  of  humour  was  injected  into  the  scene, 
by  the  introduction  of  a  young  gallant,  unabash- 
edly carrying  on  his  courtship  undisturbed  by 
the  earnestness  of  the  occasion.  Tranquillity 
and  harmony  are  suggested  by  the  child  quietly 
playing  upon  the  floor.  The  sorrowing  coun- 
tenance of  the  aged  woman  sipping  her  last  and 
lengthy  draught  of  tea  from  a  bowl  prior  to 
affixing  her  signature  to  the  aforesaid  agreement 
shows  our  artist's  recognition  of  the  self  denial 
practised  by  abstaining  from  this  greatly  esteemed 
beverage.  The  scene  at  the  doorway  was  un- 
mistakably suggested  to  the  designer  by  the 
closing  portion  of  the  following  article  which 
had  appeared  in  the  London  Chronicle  of  January 
5th~7th,  1775,  under  the  heading  of: 

"  Charles  Town,  November  6.  A  few  days  ago 
arrived  the  Britannia,  Ball,  from  London.  No- 
tice having  been  received,  that  he  had  six  chests 
of  tea  on  board,  near  a  thousand  people  were 
assembled  on  the  wharf.  They  had  prepared  a 
scaffold  two  feet  high  to  run  on  wheels ;  had 

placed  the  Pope,  Lord ,  and  the  Pretender, 

in  order  to  burn  the  tea;  but  as  soon  as  the  tea 
was  brought  upon  deck,  the  owners  were  ready 
with  hatchets,  and  chopped  the  chests  to  pieces, 
and  threw  the  tea  overboard.  The  people  then 
drew  the  scaffold  about  the  town;  and  when  it  be- 
came dark,  there  was  computed  to  be  2500  men, 

319 


THE   BOSTON    PORT   BILL 

with  each  a  candle  in  his  hand,  who  retired 
to  the  out-parts  of  the  town,  where  they  set  fire 
to  the  scaffold  ;  in  the  meantime,  some  of  them 
took  the  Pope's  cap,  and  went  round  to  the 
Ladies  in  the  town,  who  emptied  the  tea  out  of 
their  cannisters  into  the  cap ;  they  then  burnt 

Lord ,  the  Pope,  and  Pretender,  with  the 

cap  full  of  tea,  all  together." 

The  scene  described  in  the  first  part  of  this 
extract  was  not  a  novel  one  to  the  readers  of  the 
English  press,  for  several  letters  had  recently  ap- 
peared in  the  London  newspapers,  which  told 
of  occurrences  of  a  like  nature  in  the  towns  and 
cities  of  the  Northern  Colonies,  where  the  in- 
habitants had  in  similar  manner  vented  their 
spleen  against  Lord  North,  the  author  of  the 
Boston  Port  Bill,  the  Pope,  the  reputed  benefic- 
iary of  the  Quebec  Bill,  and  Lord  Bute,  who  was 
popularly  known  among  his  Whig  opponents  as 
the  "  Pretender/* 

No  attempt  has  been  made  herein  to  tell  the 
full  part  played  by  our  Colonial  women  during  the 
trying  years  which  preceded  our  Nation's  birth, 
but  merely  such  portions  of  it  as  had  been  wafted 
to  England  and  there  exploited  in  the  press. 
The  devotion  of  the  women  to  the  cause  the  men 
of  the  Colonies  were  endeavouring  to  uphold  and 
their  abandoned  tea-tables  (see  page  322)  were  fit- 
tingly described  in  the  following  lines  which 


POLITICAL   ACTIVITIES  OF  COLONIAL  WOMEN 

appeared  in  nearly  all  the  Colonial  newspapers 
under  the  heading  of : 

A  LADY'S  ADIEU  TO   HER  TEA-TABLE 

FAREWELL  the  Tea-board  with  your  gaudy  attire, 
Ye  cups  and  ye  saucers  that  I  did  admire  ; 
To  my  cream  pot  and  tongs  I  now  bid  adieu, 
That  pleasure's  all  fled  that  I  once  found  in  you. 
Farewell  pretty  chest  that  so  lately  did  shine, 
With  hyson  and  congo  and  best  double  fine ; 
Many  a  sweet  moment  by  you  I  have  sat, 
Hearing  girls  and  old  maids  to  tattle  and  chat ; 
And  the  spruce  coxcomb  laugh  at  nothing  at  all, 
Only  some  silly  word  that  might  happen  to  fall. 
No  more  shall  my  teapot  so  generous  be 
In  filling  the  cups  with  this  pernicious  tea, 
For  I'll  fill  it  with  water  and  drink  out  the  same, 
Before  I'll  lose  LIBERTY  that  dearest  name, 
Because  I  am  taught  (and  believe  it  is  fact) 
That  our  ruin  is  aimed  at  in  a  late  act, 
Of  imposing  a  duty  on  all  foreign  Teas, 
Which  detestable  stuff  we  can  quit  when  we 

please. 

LIBERTY'S  the  Goddess  that  I  do  adore, 
And  I'll  maintain  her  right  until  my  last  hour, 
Before  she  shall  part  I  will  die  in  the  cause, 
For  I'll  never  be  govern'd  by  tyranny's  laws. 

No  more  fitting  subject  with  which  to  end 
321 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


this  series  of  cartoons  illustrating  the  attitude  of 
the  people  of  the  Colonies  in  the  year  1774, 
could  have  been  selected,  than  the  one  described 
in  this,  our  closing  chapter.  The  display  of  en- 
thusiasm and  cheerful  assistance  in  carrying  out 
measures  devised  in  behalf  of  the  common  weal, 
and  the  sacrifices  and  hardships  thereby  necessi- 
tated, were  then,  as  now,  typical  of  American 
womanhood,  and  furnished  the  inspiration  which 
enabled  their  husbands  and  fathers,  despite  almost 
insurmountable  obstacles,  to  establish  the  nation 
whose  history  we  hold  so  dear. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acts  of  1767, 52,  53,  68, 69, 232, 293, 300. 

Adams,  Samuel  (1722-1803),  7. 

Adams,  Thomas,  Letter  from  Richard 

Bland,  243-245. 

"Address  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Col- 
onies," by  Continental  Congress,  269. 
"Address  to  the  People  of  Great  Britain," 

by  Continental  Congress,  269. 
All,  Captain,  of  Philadelphia,  197. 
"Almanack  for  the  year  of  our  Lord 

Christ,  1 772,"  307. 

"The  Alternative  of  Williams-Burg,"  car- 
toon, 276-281. 

American  Board  of  Commissioners,  305. 
Ames,  Nathaniel,  printer,  307. 
Amherst,  Jeffrey,  Baron  Amherst  (1717- 

1797),  Governor  of  Virginia,  238. 
Andrews,  Alexander,  author    of  "  The 

History  of  British  Journalism,"  xiii. 
Anne,  Queen  of  England  (1665-1714), 

210-211. 
Assemblies,  Colonial. 

See  Colonial  Assemblies. 
Ball,  Captain,  of  the  "Britannia,"  319. 
Ballad  of  "The  Boston  Bill,"  152-154. 
Barclay  Street  (New  York),  217. 
Barre",  Isaac  (1726-1802). 

Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  1 1 . 

Characterizes  Americans  as  "Sons  of 
Liberty,"  15-16. 

Portrait  displayed,  40. 

Characterization  of  John  Dickinson, 

55- 

Denounces  Port  Bill,  135-136. 
Alluded  to  in  ballad    "  The  Boston 

Bill,"  153. 

Beckford,  William  (1709-1770),  xxii. 
Bennett,  J. 

See   Sayer,  Messrs.  Robert  and  Ben- 
nett, J.,  publishers  and  printsellers. 
Berdt,  Dennis  de,  Colonial  agent  in  Lon- 
don, 56. 


Bernard,  Sir  Francis  (1711  ?-i779),  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts  Bay,  59. 

Bickers  tafTs  Boston  Almanack,  112. 

Bill  of  Rights,  107,  1  13. 

Bill  of  Rights,  Society  of  Supporters  of  the, 
108,109,154. 

Birmingham  (England),  8,  300,  316. 

Bishops,  Bench  of,  147-148. 

Bland,  Richard,  of  Virginia  (1710-1778), 


Blagge,  John,  of  New  York,  220,  222. 
Boston. 

Town  Meeting,  May,  1764,  7. 
Economies  practiced,  S-io. 
"Fourteenth  of  August,"  1765,  14. 
Governor's  request  for  garrison  grant- 

ed, and  indignation  thereat,  59-61. 
Convention  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Sept.  22, 

1768,60. 
Non-Importation    Resolutions     and 

Agreements,  6  1  . 
Return  of  importations,  62. 
"Fourteenth  of  August"  celebration, 

69. 

Prominence  of  city  in  English  press,  69  . 
Tea  ships  sent  to,  70. 
"The  Tea  Party,"  72-77,  193. 
English   verdict   upon  destruction  of 

tea,  125. 
Punishment  and  indignation  thereat, 

125-176. 
Meeting  of  delegates  from  nine  towns, 

159. 
Poit  Bill  denounced  in  Town  meet- 

ing, 159. 

Appeals  to  sister  Colonies,  159-160. 
Assembly  prorogued  to  meet  at  Salem, 

167. 
Indignities    put    upon    citizens    de- 

scribed in  letter,  168-170. 
Cartoon,  "The  Bostonians  in  Dis- 

tress," 173-176. 


3*3 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 


Boston. — (Continued) 

New  York's  approval  of  attitude 
toward  Tea  resolutions,  195. 

Protests  against  injustice  to  Boston, 
203. 

Letter  of  sympathy  from  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty, New  York,  205. 

Williamsburg  Convention  resolves  to 
send  aid,  268. 

Two  hundred  families  agree  not  to  use 
tea,  301. 

Agreement  of  ladies  against  tea-drink- 
ing. 3°4-3°5- 

Letters  from,  306, 3 10-3 1 1 . 
"The  Boston  Bill,"  a  ballad,  152-154. 
"Boston  Massacre,"  Mar.  5,  1770,  68, 

105,131. 
Boston  Port  Bill. 

Unites  Colonies  against  British  Min- 
istry, xvi-xix. 

Great  Britain's  policy  previous  to,  xxi. 

Presented  to  House  of  Commons  by 
Lord  North,  Mar.  4, 1774, 125. 

Title  and  abstract,  126-130. 

Petition  against  Bill  by  Americans  in 
London,  130-132. 

Debate  upon,  in  House  of  Commons, 
132-136. 

Passes  House  of  Commons,  136. 

Passes  House  of  Lords,  137. 

Public  protests  expressed  in  Press, 
137-142. 

Object  of  Bill,  143. 

Attitude  of  Colonies,  150-151. 

Ballad  "The  Boston  Bill,"  152-154. 

News  of  passage  of  Act  reaches  Bos- 
ton, 159-161. 

Act  put  into  effect,  162. 

Suffering  caused  and  sympathy 
aroused,  163-170. 

Reception  of  news  of  passage  of  Bill 
in  New  York,  204. 

New  York  meeting  declares  Bill  un- 
constitutional, 209. 

Reception  of  news  in  Virginia,  and 
action  of  House  of  Burgesses,  249- 
260. 

Boston  State  House  (Boston),  xxviii,  7. 
Boston  Tea  Party,  72-77, 308. 
"The  Bostonians  in  Distress,"  cartoon, 

173-176. 

"  The  Bostonian's  Paying  the  Excise- 
Man,"  82-87. 

Botetourt,  Norborne  Berkeley,  Baron  de 
(1717  ?-i77o),  Governor  of  Virginia. 

Difficulties  of  position,  233. 

Lord  Hillsborough's  letter,  234-235. 


Botetourt. — (Continued.) 

Address  to  House  of  Burgesses,  235 
236. 

His  characteristics,  237-241. 

His  death,  241-243. 

Statue  erected  to,  xxix,  xxx,  243-248 . 

Statue  represented  in  cartoon,  280. 
Bowles,  Carington,  publisher  and  print- 
seller,  xx,  93,  121. 
Bowles,  John,  publisher  and  printseller, 

xvi,  xx,  156. 

"Britannia,"  tea  ship,  319. 
"Britannia  in  the  Act  of  Self-destruction," 

cartoon,  17-18. 
The  Briton,  edited  by   Tobias  Smollett, 

97- 

Brookfield  (Massachusetts),  301. 
Broome,  Samuel,  of  New  York,  221,  222. 
Bruton  Parish   Church   (Williamsburg), 

xxx,  254,  285. 

Buckinghamshire  (England),  96. 
Bunyan,  John  (1628-1688),  xvi. 
Bute,  John  Stuart,  third  Earl  of  (1713- 

1792). 

Burned  in  effigy,  14, 42. 

Caricatured,  46. 

Toast  to,  90. 

Becomes  Prime  Minister,  97. 

Resigns,  98. 

Relations  to  King's  mother,  102. 

Jacobite  influence,  147. 

Curse  upon,  150. 

Known  as  the  "Pretender,"  320. 
Camden,   Sir  Charles   Pratt,  first   earl 

(1714-1794). 

Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  1 1 . 

Celebration  portrait,  40. 

Combats  passage  of  Port  Bill,  136. 

Opposes  religious  clauses  of  Quebec 

boundary  bill,  147, 148. 
Canada,  4, 296. 
Caricatures. 

See  Cartoons. 
Carlisle,  Bishop  of,  103. 
Caroline,  Queen   of  George  II   (1683- 

1737),  142- 

Canterbury  (England),  90. 
Carpenters  Hall  (Philadelphia),  xxix,  269. 
Cartoons. 

Evince  the  unpopularity  of  the  Ad- 
ministration, xiv-xv. 
"Humourous  mezzotints,"  xv,  xix. 
"Posture  mezzotints,"  xvi. 
"Miss  Macaroni  and  her  Gallant  at  a 

Print-shop,"  xvi. 

Series  of  five  issued  by  Sayer  and  Ben- 
nett, xix,  82. 


3*4 


INDEX 


Cartoons. — (Continued). 

"Britannia  in  the  Act  of  Self-de- 
struction," 17,  18. 

"The  Wise  Men  of  Gotham  and  their 
Goose,"  published  by  W.  Hum- 
phrey, 42-48. 

"The  Bostonians  Paying  the  Excise- 
Man,  or  Tarring  and  Feathering," 
Plate  I  of  a  series  issued  by  Sayer 
and  Bennett,  82-87. 

"A  New  Method  of  Macarony  Mak- 
ing, as  practised  at  Boston,"  pub- 
lished by  Carington  Bowles,  93 . 

"A  Political  Lesson,"  published  by 
John  Bowles,  156-159. 

"The  Bostonians  in  Distress,"    Plate 

II  of  series  issued  by  Sayer  and  Ben- 
nett, 173-176. 

"The  Patriotic  Barber  of  New  York, 
or  the  Captain  in  the  Suds,"  Plate 

III  of  series  issued  by  Sayer  and 
Bennett,  179-183,214-218. 

"The  Alternative  of  Williams-Burg," 
Plate  IV  of  series  issued  by  Sayer 
and  Bennett,  276-28 1 . 
"A  Society  of  Patriotic  Ladies,  At 
Edenton  in  North  Carolina,"  Plate 
V  of  series  issued  by  Sayer  and  Ben- 
nett, 316-319. 
"Cassius,"  Printed  advertisement  signed, 

190-192. 

"  Catullus,  Poems  of ,"  96. 
Chamber  of  Commerce  (New  York),  222 . 
Chambers,   Captain,  of  the  "London," 

197-203. 

Charles  I  (1600-1649),  108, 290. 
Charles  II  (1630-1685),  226. 
Charleston  (South  Carolina),  70. 
Charlestown  (Massachusetts),  169,  301, 

319- 
Charlotte  Sophia,  Queen  of  George  III 

(1744-1818),  40. 
Chatham,  William  Pitt,  earl  of. 

See  Pitt,  William,  first  earl  of  Chatham. 
Charters,  Colonial,  27. 

See  also  under  names  of  Colonies. 
Chelsea-Derby  statuettes. 

Pitt,  xxviii,  33. 

Wilkes,  xxviii,  107. 

Mrs.  Macaulay,  307. 
Church  of  England. 

In  New  York,  184. 

In  Virginia,  225. 

Foreshadowing   of  Disestablishment, 

280. 
Church  of  Rome. 

See  Quebec  Act ;  Pope  (Pius  V). 


Circular  Letters. 

Of  Massachusetts  Bay  Assembly,  57- 

59- 

Of  Boston  Town  Committee,  162-163. 
City  Hall  Park  (New  York),  184. 
Civil  List,  6. 
Coffin,  Captain,  35. 
Colonial  Assemblies. 

Salaries  fixed  by,  6. 

Remonstrances  against  Stamp  Act,  7. 

Addresses  to  King  after  Repeal  of 
Stamp  Act,  41. 

Claims  of  exemption  from  taxation 
denied  by  Parliament,  52. 

Protests  against  Act  of  1767, 56. 

North  Carolina  Assembly  joins,  313. 

See  also  under  Connecticut,  Maryland, 
Massachusetts  -  Bay,    New    York, 
North     Carolina,      Pennsylvania, 
Rhode  Island,  Virginia 
Colonial  Congress,  New  York. 

Protests  against  Stamp  Act,  27, 183. 

North  Carolina  not  represented   at, 

312. 
Colonial  Congress,  Philadelphia. 

Rumored  in  England,  156. 

Delegates  appointed  at  Salem,  167. 
Colonies. 

English  knowledge  of,  displayed  in 
cartoons,  xx-xxi,  86. 

English  commerce,  4-5. 

Fiscal  Policy,  6. 

Financial  depression,  8-1 1 . 

Manufactures,  9-11,  86,  265,  274,299 
-301. 

Arousal  realized  in  England,  16-17. 

Parliament's  assertion  of  right  to  con- 
trol, 52. 

Prevailing  distrust  of  Parliament,  53 . 

Acclaim  vote  of  "92  ",  58. 

Enraged  at  troops  in  Boston,  61 . 

Non-importation  Resolutions  and 
Agreements,  62. 

Revival  of  old  relations,  68. 

Refuse  to  receive  tea  from  England,  70. 

Parallel  between  Colonists  and  elec- 
tors of  England,  107. 

Quebec  Bill  and  its  effects,  146-152. 

Congress  rumored  in  England,  156. 

Boston's  appeal  to,  after  Port  Bill, 
159-160. 

Boston  upheld,  160-162. 

New  York's  trade  diverted  to  Colonies 
where  Non-Importation  Agreements 
were  lightly  observed,  205. 

Effect  of  Virginia's  challenge  to  Par- 
liament, 228. 


325 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


Colonies. — (Continued.) 

Continental  Congress,  269-271. 

Symbol  of  "living  snake,"  xxix,  270- 

271. 
"Colonies,  Address  to  the  Inhabitants  of 

the,"  from  Continental  Congress,  269. 
Commerce. 

Colonial,  xiii,  4-5, 128, 254, 263. 

English,  xiii,  5, 8, 51-52, 134, 253. 
Commerce,  Chamber  of  (New  York),  222. 
Committee  of  Fifty-one,  205. 
Committee  of  One  Hundred,  New  York, 

219,220,221. 

Committee  of  Inspection  against  Non- 
Importation,  221 . 

Committee  of  Mechanics,  New  York,  210. 
Committees  of  Correspondence,  248, 254, 

266,313. 

Boston,  193, 254. 

Massachusetts,  174,  249. 

New  York,  204, 209, 210. 

Virginia,  254, 266. 

Concord, Battle  of,  April  19, 1775,  xiv,42. 
Congress. 

See  Colonial    Congress,  New  York  ; 
Colonial  Congress,   Philadelphia  ; 
Continental  Congress,  Philadelphia. 
Connecticut,  61, 146. 
Connecticut,  Assembly  of,  7. 
Constitutional  Government,  si. 
Constitutional  Society,  xiii. 
Continental  Congress,  Philadelphia. 

Massachusetts  delegates  appointed  at 
Salem,  167. 

Richard  Bland,  representative  from 
Virginia,  443. 

House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  recom- 
mends formation,  253. 

Williamsburg  Resolution  concerning, 
268. 

First  meeting,  Sept.  5, 1774,269-271. 
Conway,  Henry  Seymour  (1721-1795). 

Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  1 1 . 

Portrait,  40. 

Supports  Meredith,  228. 
Cornbury,  Edward  Hyde,  Lord  (d.  1723), 

Governor  of  New  York,  211. 
Cornwall  (England),  xii. 
Courts  of  Justice,  Colonial,  143, 272. 
Crook,  Justice,  292. 
Crozer,  John,  Captain  of  the  "Empress  of 

Russia,"  214. 

Cruger,  John  (1710. '-1792?),  30,188-189. 
Customs  officers,  56, 69, 128. 

See  also  Malcolm,  John. 
Daily  Advertiser,  London,  309-310. 
"Dartmouth,"  tea  »hip,  73, 76. 


Dawe,  Phillip  (fl.  1765-1801),  mezzotint 

engraver,  xv,  xix,  xx. 
Declaration  of  Independence,  269. 
"Declaration  of  Rights,"  by  Continental 

Congress,  269. 

Dempster,  George  (1752-1818),  134-135. 
"A  Dialogue  between  a  North  American 

and    a    Courtier,"    signed    "Marcus 

Aurelius,"  13-14. 
Dickinson,  John  (1732-1808),  author  of 

the  "Farmer's  Letters"  55, 307. 
Dickinson,   William   (1746-1823),   mez- 
zotint engraver,  xv. 
Dighton,  Robert  (1752  ?-i8i4),xv. 
Dixon,  John  (i74O?-i78o?),  mezzotint 

engraver,  xv,  156. 

Dress,  Economy  in,  9-11, 297-303. 
Duesbury,   William  (1725-1786),   china 

manufacturer. 

Statuette  of  Pitt,  xxviii,  33. 

Of  Wilkes,  xxviii,  107. 

Of  Mrs.  Macaulay,  307. 
Dunmore,  John  Murray,  fourth  Earl  of 

(1732-1809),   Governor   of   Virginia, 

248,250,271. 
Duties. 

Act  of  1764,3,59. 

Acts  of  1767, 52, 53, 69. 

See  also  Stamp  Act;  Tea. 
Earlom,  Richard  (1743-1822),  mezzotint 

engraver,  xv. 
East  India  Company. 

See  Tea. 
Edenton    (North  Carolina),  xxx,   313, 

315-316. 
Edenton  (North  Carolina),  A  Society  of 

Patriotic  Ladies  at,  xxx,  293 , 3 1 1 , 3 13 

-316. 

Edinburgh  (Scotland),  131, 141. 
English  Army  in  America. 

Cost  of  maintaining,  4. 

Objections   of   Colonies   to   mainte- 
nance, 57.61, 

Troops  in  Faneuil  Hall,  61 

Bill  for  quartering  troops,  145. 

Maintenance  of,  and  desertions  from, 

1 80. 
English  Church. 

See  Church  of  England. 
English  Ministry. 

See  Ministry,  English. 
English  Navy,  292. 
Epigram  on  Quebec  Bill,  148. 
"Essay  on  Woman,"  102-103. 
Excise  Men,  90. 

See   also  Malcolm,  John;    Customs 

Officers. 


326 


INDEX 


Fables  addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Hills- 
borough,  64-66. 
Fairfax  County  (Virginia). 

Convention,  258. 

Resolution  regarding  slave  trade,  259- 

260,  264. 
Faneuil  Hall  (Boston),  xxviii. 

Meeting  of  Selectmen,  35. 

Convention,  Sept.  22, 1768,  60. 

Troops  quartered  in,  61 . 

Meeting   of   delegates   after   passage 
of  Port  Bill,  159. 

Committee  on  donations  meet  there, 
164. 

Meeting  to  resolve  against  use  of  tea, 

3°5- 
"Farmer's  Letters,"  by  John  Dickinson, 

54-56,115,307. 
Farmington  (Connecticut),  161. 
Fielding,  Henry  (1707-1754),  xv. 
Fox,  Charles  James  (1749-1806),  135. 
Francis,  Samuel,  proprietor  of  "Fraunces 

Tavern,"  201 . 
France,  295. 
Franklin,  Benjamin  (1706-1790). 

Articles  contributed  to  British  Press, 
xxii-xxiii. 

Letters  to  Charles  Thomson,  22-25. 

Portrait  by  Wedgwood,  xxviii,  25. 

His  "Candles"  of  industry  referred  to, 

293- 
Franklin,  Walter  (Welle)  (d.  1780),  of 

New  York,  221. 
Frederick  the  Great,  97. 
French  and  Indian  War  (1756-1763),  4. 
French  East-India  Company,  295. 
French  interest  in  controversy,  18,  21. 
Gage,  Thomas  (1721-1787),  General. 

Terrific  fall,  156-159. 

Arrival  at  Boston  as  Governor,  160. 

Meets  with  Assembly  at  Salem,  167. 

Protests  against  Town  meetings,  168. 

Statement  to  Lord  North,  205. 

His  order  to  New  York,  212. 

Letter  from  Continental  Congress,  269. 
Gaspe"  Affair,  248. 
Gazetteer,  London,  1 19. 
General  Warrants,  99,  106, 113. 
George  HI  (1738-1820). 

Supremacy,  xi-xii. 

Portrait,  xxvi,  40. 

Equestrian  statue,  29-30,  32-33. 

Cartooned,  46, 47. 

Delight  at  Acts  of  1767,  52. 

Petitions  to,  56,  57. 

Parliament  assures  its  support  against 
Massachusetts-Bay,  62. 


George  III. — (Continued). 

Struggle  with  Wilkes,  63, 99-101. 

His  henchmen  in  Parliament,  67. 

Jealousy  of  Pitt,  elevation  of  Bute, 
96-97. 

Speeches. 

Assents  to  Port  Bill  137. 

Reception  in  London  after  Quebec 
Act,  149-150. 

Loyalty  to,  in  England  and  America, 
151. 

Botetourt  influences  Virginia  in  his 

favor,  233-237. 
Georgia,  269. 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  149. 
Glynn,   John,  of   London   (1722-1779), 

loo,  112,  155-156. 
Great  Britain. 

Knowledge  of  Colonies  in,  xx-xxi. 

Policy  of  Colonial  oppression,  3. 

Fiscal  Policy,  6. 

Gravity  of  situation,  25-26. 

Loss  of  American  trade,  27. 

Prosperity  dependent  upon  Colonies, 
52,  262. 

Feeling  of  hostility  against,  revived, 

5S-56- 

Trade  with  Colonies,  128-129,  I34- 

Earnestness  in  issue,  133-134. 

Loyalty  to,  in  the  Colonies,  173. 

Williamsburg    Resolution    regarding 
exports  to,  265,  267. 

Colonial  policy,  299. 

See  also  House  of  Commons;  House 
of  Lords;  Parliament;  Vice-Admi- 
ralty Courts;  King's  Bench  Court. 
Grenville,  George  (1712-1770). 

Burned  in  effigy,  42 

Originator  of  Acts  of  1767,  52. 

Prime  Minister,  98 . 

Letters  from  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  103. 
Grenville,  afterwards   Grenville-Temple, 
Richard  Temple,  Earl  Temple. 

See  Temple,  Earl  (Richard  Grenville 

Temple). 
Griffiths,  Anthony,  of  New  York,  aiz, 

219,  222. 

Gwatkin,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  280. 
Habeas  Corpus,  147. 
Hall  of  Records  (New  York),  219. 
Hampden,  John  (1594-1643),  292, 307. 
Hampton  (Virginia),  231. 
Hancock,  John  (i737~i793)»  38- 
Hayward,  Richard,  sculptor,  245. 
Hemp  and  flax,  9-10. 
Hempstead  (Long  Island),  10-11. 
Henley,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  280. 


327 


THE    BOSTON    PORT    BILL 


Henry,  Patrick  (1736-1799),  231,  279. 
Hewit,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  280. 
Hillsborough,  Wills  Hill,  second  Viscount 
(1718-1739). 

Secretary  of  State  to  the  Colonies,  58. 
Fables  addressed  to  him,  64-66. 
Letter  to  Lord  Botetourt,  234-235. 
Complimentary  allusion  to,  239. 
"The  History  of  British  Journalism,"  by 

Alexander  Andrews,  xiii. 
"History  of  England  from  the  Accession 
of  James  the  First  to  that  of  the  Bruns- 
wick Line,"  306-307. 
"History  of  England  from  the  Invasion  of 
Julius  Caesar  to  the  Revolution  in 
1688,"  307. 
Hogarth,  William  (1697-1764),  painter 

and  engraver,  xix,  xx. 
Holland,  22, 308. 
Homespun,  86,  303. 
Horn,  medal  of  town  of,  1587,  26. 
Home,  John. 

See  Tooke,  John  Home. 
House  of  Commons. 

Popular  representation  a  misnomer, 

xii. 
Number  of  votes  in  favor  of  Repeal  of 

Stamp  Act,  41 . 
Resolution  concerning  North  Briton 

No.  45,  101 . 

Wilkes  summoned  for  trial,  105. 
Action  in  Wilkes-Luttrell  election,  106. 
Newspapers   begin    to   publish    sub- 
stances of  debates,  119. 
Port  Bill  presented  by  Lord  North, 

125-126. 
Sentiment  about  punishment  of  Bos- 

tonians  divided,  132. 
Passage  of  Port  Bill,  136. 
Bills   aimed   at   Massachusetts   Bay, 

142-152. 
Failure  to  secure  repeal  of  duty  on  tea, 

146. 
Virginia  protests  against  violation  of 

established  rights,  227-228. 
Governor  Dunmore's  Letter,  271-275. 
Women  sympathizers  with  Colonies 

refused  admittance,  286-287. 
Pitts'  appreciation  of  Mrs.  Macaulay, 

307. 
House  of  Lords. 

Attack  on  Wilkes,  102. 
Passage  of  Port  Bill,  137. 
Division  over  Port  Bill,  148. 
Houston,  Richard  (1721  .'-1775),  mezzo- 
tint engraver,  xv. 
Hume,  David  (171 1-1776),  307. 


Humphrey,  William  (i74of-i8io?),  mez- 
zotint engraver  and  printseller,  xv,  xx, 
42. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas  (1711-1780),  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  72,  76,  160, 
203. 

Hyperion  or  Labrador  tea,  295-296. 

Illinois,  146. 

Indian  Nabobs,  xv-xvi. 

Indiana,  146. 

Jacobite  influence  in  Cabinet,  147. 

Jacobite  Rebellion,  1745,  97- 

James  I  (1566-1625),  229. 

James  II  (1633-1701),  108, 150. 

"Jemmy  Twitcher,"  soubriquet  of  Earl 
of  Sandwich,  102. 

Johnston,  Samuel,  of  Edenton,  1733- 
1816,  313. 

Judges,  Bench  of,  292. 

"Junius,"  xii. 

JUI7»  143- 

Trial  by,  6. 

Right  of,  attacked,  62, 

Effect  of  Quebec  Bill,  146. 

In  Virginia,  232. 
Kelly,  Mr.,  of  England,  formerly  of  New 

York,  191. 
Kentish  Gazette,  90,  izi,  138-140,  145- 

146,  I47-I49»  «3-«4- 
King's  Bench,  Court  of,  104. 
Labrador  tea,  or  Hyperion,  295-296. 
"A  Lady's  Adieu  To  Her  Tea-Table," 

a  poem,  321. 

Lamb,  Charles  (1775-1834),  xx. 
Lamb,  John,  of  New  York,    1735-1800, 

193,212,218,  222. 
Lawrence,  Captain,  199. 
Lee,  Richard  Henry,  of  Virginia  (1732- 

1794),  280. 

Leeds  (England),  8, 300. 
"Letters  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Prov- 
ince of  Quebec,"  from  Continental 

Congress,  269. 
Lexington,  Battle  of,  April  19,  1775,  xiv, 

42,  220. 

Liberty  of  the  Press,  98, 119. 
Liberty  Pole. 

Farmington,  161-162. 

New  York,  184,  187-189. 
Liberty  Tree,  Boston,  73,  86,  87,  173 

'75- 

"List  of  Grievances,"  issued  by  Conti- 
nental Congress,  269. 
Liverpool  (England),  8. 
Livingston,  Abraham,  of  New  York,  220 

222. 

Lloyd's  Evening  Post,  26,  304. 


328 


INDEX 


Lockyer,  Captain,  of  tea  ship  "Nancy," 
196-203. 

London  Chronicle,  xxii,  8,  9,  10,  12,  13, 
16,21,26,  28,  29  34>35»6l>  62>  63> 
64,  66,  89,  93,  109,  113,  114, 137,  141, 
151,  155, 190,  196,  228,  233,  255, 275, 
28i,;286,  287,  293,  294,  295,  301, 302, 
303,306,308,319. 

London  Evening  Post,  120, 180-183,  2O^- 

London  Public  Advertiser,  rxii,  xxiii. 

"London,"  tea  ship,  197. 

Lovelace,  Francis  (i6i8?-i675?),  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  211. 

"Low,  Cornelius  the  big,"  219. 

Low,  Cornelius  P.,  of  New  York,  219. 

Lugg,  Charles,  of  New  York,  220. 

Luttrell,  Henry  Lawes,  second  Earl  of 
Carhampton  (1743-1821),  106. 

Lynn  (Massachusetts),  1 1 . 

McArdell,  James  (17291 ^-1765),  mezzo- 
tint engraver,  xv. 

Macarony. 

"New  Method  of  Macarony  Making," 

93-.. 

Definition  of  term,  94. 

Macaulay,   Mrs.    Catherine,    afterwards 

known  as  Catherine  Macaulay  Gra- 
ham (1731-1791),  306-308. 
McDougall,  Alexander,  "the  American 

Wilkes,"    1731-1786,   205,  208,  210, 

218-219,222. 

Magna  Charta,xu,  107, 113, 115,270. 
Malcomb,  John. 

Tarred   and   feathered,  77-82. 

Cartoons,  82-86, 93-95, 122. 

His  case  one  of  reasons  given  for  pun- 
ishment of  Bostonians  by  House  of 
Commons,  132. 

Manchester  (England),  8, 300, 316. 
Mansfield  (Connecticut),  agreement,  62. 
Mansfield,  William  Murray,  first  Earl  of 

(1705-1793). 

Cartooned,  47. 

Toast  to,  90. 

Advocates  Port  Bill,  136-137. 
Manufactures. 

Colonial,  9-11,  86,  265,  274,  269-301. 

English,  xiii,  27, 296, 299-301 . 
Marblehead  (Massachusetts),  163, 164. 
"Marcus  Aurelius,"  "Dialogue,"  signed, 

1765, 13-14. 
Maryland,  10, 27, 28 1 . 
Maryland,  Assembly  of,  30. 
Massachusetts-Bay. 

Charter,  27. 

Convention  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Sept.  22, 
1768,60. 


Massachusetts-Bay. — (Continued.) 

Presence  of  soldiers  a  source  of  irrita- 
tion, 61, 68. 

Wilkes  advocated  as  Governor,  121. 
Bills  aimed  at,  142-152. 
Massachusetts  Bay,  Assembly  of. 
Protests  against  Stamp  Act,  7. 
Contemplates   erection   of   statue   to 

Pitt,  30. 
Protests  to  King  against  Acts  of  1767, 

56-57. 

Sends  circular  letter  to  Colonies,  57. 
Speaker    and    clerk    elected    to    like 
offices  in  convention  held  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  60. 

Contest  with  Governor,  69. 
Philadelphia  Resolutions  adopted,  73. 
Referred  to  by  Kentish  Gazette,  139- 

140. 

Meets  at  Salem  and  is  dissolved,  167. 
Massachusetts  Gazette,  308. 
Medal,  "Frangimur  si  Collidimur,"  26. 
Mercer,  Col.  George,  of  Virginia,  231, 

238. 
Merchants. 

Resolutions  concerning,  in  Williams- 
burg  convention,  266-267. 
Meredith,  Sir  William  (1724-1790),  228. 
Mezzotints. 

See  Cartoons. 
Michigan,  146. 
Middlesex,  County  of,  England,  xii,  104, 

106,121,154. 
Middlesex  Journal, xxii, 26, 119, 166,203, 

210-211,260-269,310-311. 
Miller,  John,  publisher,  120. 
Ministry,  English. 

Lesson  of  Stamp  Act  not  learned,  41 . 
Attempt  to  take   additional  revenue, 

48. 

Letter  from  Massachusetts-Bay  As- 
sembly, 57-58 . 

Denounced  by  Press  for  order  to  re- 
scind Circular  Letter,  58. 
Attitude  of  English  Press  toward,  64- 

67. 

Weak  step,  67. 
Ridiculed  by  cartoonist,  94. 
Power  called  into  play  against  Wilkes, 

101. 

Predicament  in  Wilkes  affair,  101-105. 
Motives  in  Port  Bill  attacked,  137. 
Jealousy  of  rights  of  Colonies,  142. 
Quebec  Bill  146. 

Denunciation  on  account  of  Bill,  151. 
America  takes  up   gauntlet  against; 
166-167. 


329 


THE    BOSTON    PORT   BILL 


Ministry. — (Continued.) 

Effect  of  New  York  sympathy  with 
Boston,  2 1 1-2 1 2. 

Feeling  antagonistic  to,  in  Colonies, 

285. 
"Miss  Macaroni  and  her  Gallant  at  a 

Print-shop,"  cartoon,  xvi. 
Mohawks,  192,  201. 
Montagu,  Virginia  agent,  228. 
Morland,  George  (1763-1804),  painter, 

xv. 

Morning  Chronicle  and  London  Adver- 
tiser, 31 1, 313-3 15. 
Mourning,  Curtailment  of  expression  of, 

in  dress,  9. 

Murray's  Wharf  (New  York),  200, 202. 
Nahant  Point  (Massachusetts),  126. 
"Nancy,"  the  tea  ship,  196. 
"Nauticus,"  Article  signed,  180-183. 
Navy,  English,  292. 
Nelson,  William,  of  Virginia  (171 1-1772), 

248. 
New  England  Colonies. 

Sheep  and  cattle  sent  to  Boston,  164. 

Efforts  to  restrict  trade  with  England, 

296-299. 

New  Jail  (New  York),  xxix,  219. 
New  London  (Connecticut),  113. 
"A  New  Method  of  Macarony  Making," 

cartoon,  93. 
New  York. 

Economies  practiced,  IO-H. 

Tea  ships  sent  to,  70. 

Disregard  of  her  claims,  146. 

Transports  despatched  to,  170. 

Incident  and  cartoon  of  the  "Patri- 
otic Barber,"  179-180,  183,  214- 
218. 

Discord  in  political  sentiments,  183- 
184. 

Sons  of  Liberty  enforce  Non-Impor- 
tations Agreement,  185-190. 

"New  York  Tea  Party,"  190-202. 

Reception  of  news  of  passage  of  Port 
Bill,  204. 

Loyalty  to  Non-Importation  Agree- 
ment, 205. 

Meeting  held,  July  6, 208-209 . 

Her  conciliatory  governors,  210. 

Material  assistance  sent  to  Boston, 

211. 

Action  in  sending  Deputies  to  Con- 
gress at  Philadelphia,  210, 21 1 . 
New  York,  Assembly  of. 

Protests  against  Stamp  Act,  7. 
Votes  statue  to  George  III,  29-30. 
Votes  statue  to  Pitt,  30-32. 


New  York. — (Continued.) 

Legislative  powers  suspended,  53-54. 

Attacked  by  McDougall,  218. 
New  Tork  Journal  or  the  General  Adver- 

tiser,  32,  77,  271. 

Newberne  (North  Carolina),  xxix,  313. 
Newfoundland,  168. 
Newport  (Rhode  Island),  302, 310. 
Nicholas,    Robert    Carter,    of    Virginia 

(1715-1780),  Treasurer  of  Virginia, 

1766-76,  242-243,  268-269. 
Non-Importation. 

Associations  revived,  56. 

Examples  of  merchants  of  Boston,  61 . 

Difficulties  in  maintaining  agreement, 
68. 

Associations  dismembered,  68. 

Opponents  tarred  and  feathered,  87. 

Agreements  revived,  150. 

Agreements  enforced  by  Sons  of  Lib- 
erty in  New  York,  185-190. 

New  York  Deputies  to  projected  Con- 
gress instructed  upon  Agreements, 
209. 

Influence  of  New  York  Committee  of 
Correspondence  and  Committee  of 
Mechanics  on  delegates  to  Con- 
gress, 210. 

Enthusiasm  for,  in  Virginia,  232. 

Associations  formed  in  Virginia,  234. 

Women's  connection  with,  293. 

Effect  upon  Colonial  manufacturers, 

299-300. 

North,  Frederick,  second  Earl    of  Guil- 
ford  (1732-1792). 

Portrait,  xxvi. 

Burned  in  effigy ,  42 . 

Cartooned,  46. 

Prediction  fulfilled,  67-68. 

Toast  to,  90. 

Presents  Port  Bill  to  Commons,  125- 
126. 

Reasons  for  Bill,  133-134. 

Satire  upon,  138-139. 

Satirical  Tribute  to,  in  Kentish  Ga- 
zette, 140. 

Alluded  to  in  Ballad  "The  Boston 
Bill,"  153. 

Cartoon  reference,  175. 

General  Gage  to,  205. 

Reads  Governor  Dunmore's  letter  in 
House  of  Commons,  271 . 

Spleen  vented  against,  320. 
North  Briton,  edited  by  John  Wilkes,  95- 

99,101. 
North  Briton,  No. 45,  April,  23, 1763, 95- 

99,101-103. 


330 


INDEX 


North  Carolina,  Assembly  of,  7,  312,  313. 
Northampton  (Virginia),  County  of,  231. 
Norwich  (Connecticut),  113. 
Numerical  Symbolism,  40-41  . 
"92,"  58. 

"45>"95>IIZ»"3>"4- 
Ohio,  146. 

Old  South  Church  (Boston),  75. 
Oliver,  Richard  (i734?-i784),  119-120. 
Otis,  Mr.  James  (1725-1783),  39. 
Parliament. 

American  policy,  xii-xiii,  xxi. 

Act  imposing  new  duties,  1764,  3. 

Act  denying  Colonial  plans  of  exemp- 
tion from  taxation,  52. 

Acts  of  1767,52-53. 

Act    compelling    Colonies    to    billet 
Royal  troops,  53  . 

"Farmer's  Letters,"  quoted  in,  55. 

Address  to    King    assuring    support 
against  Massachusetts-Bay,  62,  232. 

Duties,  save  that  on  tea,  repealed,  67,  69 

Duty  on  tea  remitted  to  relieve  East 
India  Company,  70. 

Wilkes  affair,  100-106. 

Dissolution  demanded,  108. 

Boston  Port  Bill,  126-137. 

Bill  concerning  quartering  of  troops, 
145. 

Effort  to  secure  repeal  of  tea  duty,  146. 

Quebec  Bill,  146-147. 

Platform   recommended    by   Bill    of 
Rights  Society,  154. 

Ship-money  tax,'  29  2  . 
"Parson's  Cause,"  279. 
"The  Patriotic  Barber  of  New  York,  or 

the  Captain  in  the  Suds,"  cartoon, 

179-183,214-218. 
Pennsylvania,  Assembly  of,  7. 
Pennsylvania   Chronicle  and    Universal 

Advertiser,  54. 
Philadelphia  (Pennsylvania). 

Resolutions  on  importation  of  tea, 


Meeting  of  Continental  Congress,  269- 

271. 

Pitt,   William,    first    Earl   of   Chatham 
(1708-1778). 

Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  1  1  . 
Gratitude  to,  expressed    in   London 

Chronicle,  28. 
Statues,  xxix,  28-33,  68. 
Statuette  by  Duesbury,  xxviii,  33  . 
Celebration  portrait,  40. 
Temporary  retirement,  5*. 
Replaced  as  Prime  Minister  by  Bute, 

96-97. 


Pitt,  William.— (Continued.) 

Brother-in-law  of  Grenville,  98. 

Attitude  toward  North   Briton,  No. 
45, 101. 

Toward  Wilkes,  107. 

Combats  passage  of  Port    Bill,  136. 

On  Quebec  Bill,  148-149. 

On  Mrs.  Macaulay,  307. 
Poem  on  Repeal  of  Stamp  Act,  36-38. 
"A  Political  Lesson,"  cartoon,  156-159. 
Pope  (Pius  V),  147, 319, 320. 
Popery. 

See  Quebec  Act. 

Pope's  "  Essay  on  Man,"  parodied,  102. 
Port  Bill. 

See  Boston  Port  Bill. 
Porteous,  John,  Captain  of  Edinburgh 

City  Guards,  141  -142. 
Presbyterian  Church  in  New  York,  184. 
"Presbyterian  junto,"  185. 
Press,  Liberty  of  the,  98, 1 19. 
"The  Pretender," 

See  Bute,  John  Stuart,  third  Earl  of. 
Preston,  Captain  William  (1729-1783), 

131. 

Princeton  College,  241. 
Prints. 

See  Cartoons. 
Public  Ledger,  xxiii. 
Pulline,  Major,  188. 
Quebec. 

Sends  wheat  to  Boston,  164. 

Transports  despatched  to,  170. 

"Letter  to  the  Inhabitants   of  the 

Province  of,"  269. 
Quebec  Act,  146-152, 155, 320. 
"Rationalis." 

Article  signed,  16-17. 

Card  beginning,  66-67. 
Religious  tolerance,  279-280. 
Revenue  laws,  75. 
Revere,  Paul  (1735-1818),  112. 
Revolution,  American,  312. 
Rhode  Island,  248. 
Rhode  Island,  Assembly  of,  7, 12. 
Richmond  (Virginia),  245. 
Richmond,  Charles  Lennox,  third  Duke 

of  (1735-1806),  136. 
Rome,  Church  of. 

See  Quebec  Act ;  Pope  (Pius  V). 
Roxbury  (Massachusetts),  302. 
Royal  Governors,  salaries,  57. 
"Rule  Britannia,"  American  parody  on, 

173-174. 
"The  Sailor's  Address,"  song  published 

in  London  EveningPost,  1775, 181-183. 
St.  George VField  Prison  affair,  105, 118. 


331 


THE    BOSTON  PORT   BILL 


Saint  Paul's  Chapel  (New York),  xxix,  185. 

Salem  (Massachusetts),  156,  159,  163, 
167. 

Sandwich,  John  Montagu,  fourth  Earl  of 

(1718-1792). 
,  Cartooned,  46. 
Attack  on  Wilkes,  46, 102. 

Sandy  Hook  (New  York),  197, 199, 200. 

Sayer,  Messrs.  Robert  (d.  1794)  and  Ben- 
nett, J.,  publishers  and  printsellers, 
xix,xx,  82, 173. 

Sears,  Isaac,  of  New  York  (1729-1786), 

205,  2IO,  212,  2l8,221. 

"Series  of  Resolves,"  made   by  Conti- 
nental Congress,  269 . 
Seven  Years'  War  (1756-1763),  4. 
Sheep. 

Williamsburg   resolution   concerning, 
265. 

New  York  encourages  breeding  for 

wool,  300. 

Ship-money  tax,  290-292. 
Slave  trade,  Resolution  of  Convention  of 

Fairfax  County,  259-260, 264. 
Smith,  John  Raphael  (1752-1812),  en- 
graver, xv. 
Smollett,   Tobias    George    (1721-1771), 

xv,  97. 
Society  of  Patriotic  Ladies  at  Edenton, 

293,311,313-316. 

"A  Society  of  Patriotic  Ladies,  At  Eden- 
ton  in  North  Carolina,"  cartoon, 

316-319. 

"A  Song  by  the  Tory  Ministry,"  206-208. 
Sons  of  Liberty. 

Origin  of  term,  15. 

In  Providence,  14-16. 

In  Boston,  36-40, 112-1 19. 

In  Farmington,  162. 

In  New  York,  180-222. 
South  Carolina,  218. 
South  Carolina,  Assembly  of. 

Statue  to  Pitt,  30,  31. 

Letter  from  supporterstof  BUI  of  Rights, 
109-112. 

Sends  rice  to  Boston,  164. 
Springfield  (Massachusetts),  301 . 
Stamp  Act. 

Protest  against,  by  Assemblies,  7, 312. 

Protest  against,  by  Colonial  Congress, 
^^, 183. 

Repeal,  Mar.  17, 1766, 27-28. 

Statues  of  George  III  and  Pitt  com- 
memorating, 28-33. 

Delight  in  England,  33-34. 

Delight  in  America,  34-35. 

Celebrations,  35-41. 


Stamp  Act. — (Continued). 

Number  of  votes  for  repeal,  41 . 

Lesson  of,  not  learned  by  Ministry,  41 . 

Reasons  for  repeal,  51 . 

Dangers  revived,  63. 

Dempster's  opposition,  134. 

Virginia's    petition    and    resolutions 
on  proposal  of  the  Act,  227-23 1 . 

Virginia's  condemnation,  232. 

Refusal  to  trade  with  England  meant 

loss  of  comforts  to  Colonies,  299. 
Stamp  Duties,  resolutions  concerning,  5. 
Stamp  Office,  burning  of,  14. 
Stamp  Officers. 

Burning  in  effigy,  14. 

Resignation,  14, 16. 
Statues. 

Of  George  III,  29-30, 32-33. 

Of  Pitt,  xxix,  28-33. 

Of  Lord  Botetourt,  xxix,  xxx,  243-248 . 
Statuettes. 

OfPitt,xxviii,  33. 

Of  Wilkes,  xxviii,  107. 

Of  Mrs.  Macaulay,  307. 
Symbols. 

"Living  snake,"  xxix,  270. 

"Disjointed  snake,"  270. 
Symbols,  Numerical,  40-41 . 

"92,"  58. 

"45»W95»"*»"3»«4' 

Tarring  and  feathering. 

"An  American  custom,"   87-90, 121, 

132-133. 

"  Reigning  Toast,"  90. 
See  also  Malcomb,  John. 
Taxation. 

Colonial  Assemblies  claim  of  exemp- 
tion from,  denied  by  Parliament,  52. 
Representation  demanded  by  Bill  of 

Rights  Society,  154. 
House  of  Burgesses  upon,  253 . 
See  also  Duties;  Stamp  Act;  Tea; 

Ship-money  tax. 
Tea. 

Tax  imposed,  52. 

Tax  retained,  67. 

Action  of  Colonies,  69-70. 

Sent    to    Charleston,    Philadelphia, 

New  York  and  Boston,  70. 
Philadelphia  resolutions,  70-72,  73 . 
"Boston Tea-Party ,"72-76,  308. 
Reports  of  destruction  reach  England, 

125. 

Failure  to  secure  repeal  of  duty,  146. 
Bostonians  refuse  to  pay  for,  151. 
Story  of  attitude  of  New  York  towards 

shipment  of,  190-202. 


332 


INDEX 


Tea. — (Continued). 

Virginia  recommends  disuse  of,  252- 
253. 

Resolution  of  Williamsburg  Conven- 
tion, 264. 

Ruse  to  demonstrate  before  House  of 
Commons  the  sympathy  of  Eng- 
lish women  with  Colonies,  286. 

Discontinuance  of,  and  makeshifts 
for,  an  all-absorbing  topic,  294-296. 

Attempts  to  cultivate,  in  America, 
299. 

Disuse  general  after  Boston  Tea 
Party,  308. 

Resolutions  of  ladies  of  Boston,  308- 

3°9- 

Reception   of  tea-ships   in   Virginia, 

319-320. 
Temple,  Earl  (Richard  Grenville  Temple) 

(171 1-1779),  98,  ico. 
Theatre  Royal,  Covent  Garden  (London), 

89. 
Thomson,  Charles,  of  Philadelphia  (1729- 

1824X21-22,25,293. 
Thompson,  R.,  printer,  1 19-120. 
"To   the   Betrayed   Inhabitants   of  the 

City    and    Colony     of    New- York," 

pamphlet  by  Alexander  McDougall, 

218. 

Tobacco,  10, 265, 267-268. 
Tooke,  John  Home  (1736-1812),  114. 
Tory  paper,  xxii. 
Town  Meetings  in  Engand,  108. 
Townsend,     Charles     (1725-1767),    in- 
troduces Act  imposing  new   duties, 

1767,52. 
Trade. 

Revival  after  repeal  of  Stamp  Act,  41 . 

England's  loss  of  American  trade,  61 . 

Difficulty  of  maintaining  agreements 
against  trade  with  England,  68. 

Effect  of  Port  Bill  in  Boston,  163. 

Williamsburg  Convention  Resolutions, 
266-267. 

New  England's  efforts  to  restrict, 
296—299. 

See  also  Commerce,  English  ;  Com- 
merce, American. 
Tree  of  Liberty,  270. 
Trial  by  Jury. 

See  Jury. 
Tryon,  William  (1725-1788),  Governor  of 

New  York,  203  ;  of  North  Carolina, 

312. 

Upham,  Joshua,  of  Brookfield,  301 . 
Van,  favors  Port  Bill,  135. 
Van  Dyke,  John,  New  York,  212, 219. 


Van  Zandt,  Jacobus,  of  New  York,  no, 

221,  222. 

Vaughn,  Samuel,  28 1 . 
Vice-Admiralty  Courts,  5, 6. 
Virginia. 

Economies  practiced,  9-11. 

Charter,  27. 

Measures  of  aid  for  Boston,  60,  164, 

256-269. 

Disregard  of  claims  by  Ministry,  146. 
Record  assuring,  to  Boston,  225. 
Church  of  England  in,  225. 
Claim  of  exemption  from  taxation, 

226. 

Story  of  her  seal,  226-227. 
Petition  upon  proposed  Stamp  Act, 

227. 
Remonstrance  to  House  of  Commons, 

227-228. 

Challenge  to  Parliament,  228-23 '  • 
Passes  resolution  asserting  rights  of 

Colony,  232-233. 

Governorship  of  Botetourt,  233-243. 
Statue  to  Botetourt,  243-248 . 
Lord  Dunmore  succeeds  Botetourt  as 

Governor,  248 . 
Action  with  regard  to  Port  Bill,  249- 

256. 

Attitude  toward  slave  trade,  259-260. 
Conventional  Williamsburg, 260-269. 
Manufactures,  265-274. 
Defiant  attitude  of,  275-296. 
Feminine  economy  in  dress,  303. 
Virginia  Gazette,  164-167, 226, 241,  249- 

.  *#• 

Virginia,  House  of  Burgesses  of. 
Protests  against  Stamp  Act,  7. 
Resolutions    passed    against    Stamp 

Act,  16,227-231. 
Resolution  on  taxation,  232-233. 
Botetourt's  address,  235-236. 
Approval  of  statue  to  Botetourt,  244. 
Takes  steps  to  unite  a  nation,  248- 

254. 

Favors  religious  tolerance,  279-280. 
Ball  in  honor  of  Lord  Botetourt,  303- 

3°4- 
Virginia,    House  of   Burgesses  of  (the 

building),  xxx,  245, 304. 
Vredenburgh,     Jacob,     the     "Patriotic 

Barber,"  214,  217. 

Ward,  William  (1766-1826),  engraver.xv. 
Washington,  George  (1732-1799),  259. 
Watson,  James  (i739?-i79o),  mezzotint 

engraver,  xv. 
Wedderburn,   Alexander,   first    Earl    of 

Rosslyn  (1733-1805),  cartooned,  47. 


333 


THE   BOSTON   PORT   BILL 


Wedgwood,  Josiah  (1730-1795),  potter, 

xxviii,  25. 
Wesley  s,  The,  xvi. 
West  Indies,  164,  263,264. 
Wheatley,  Francis  (1747-1801),  painter, 

xv. 

Wheble,  John,  printer,  1 19-120. 
Whig  families,  96. 
Whig  party,  307. 
White,  Henry,  fourth  president  Chamber 

of   Commerce,  N.  Y.,   died  in  Eng- 
land 1786, 198. 
Whitehall  (London),  xvi,  222. 
Whitefield, George   (i7H-i77o)>  divine, 

xvi. 

Wilbraham  (Massachusetts),  301. 
Wilkes,  John  (1727-1797). 

Middlesex  Journal,  his  organ,  xxii. 

Attack  upon,  by  Earl  of  Sandwich,  46 
102. 

Editorial  attack  upon,  63. 

Editor  of  North  Briton,  95-99. 

Personal  characteristics,  95-96. 

Member  of  Paliament,  96. 

Hatred  of  Scotch,  97. 

Story  of  North  Briton  No.  45, 98-99. 

Struggle  with  Parliament,  Imprison- 
ment, etc.,  99-106. 

Private  press,  102. 

Cartoons,  portraits,  statuette,  etc., 
rrviii,  107. 

Fares  sumptuously  in  prison,  108. 

Sympathy  between  his  followers  in 
England  and  America  demon- 
strated, 109-112. 

American  demonstrations  in  his  honor, 
112-114. 

Sheriff  of  London,  1 14. 

Letter  from  prison  to  Boston  Sons  of 
Liberty,  117-119. 

Mayor  of  London,  120. 

Advertisement  announces  portrait  of 
Wilkes  in  BickerstafTs  Almanack, 

112. 

Fruit  of  victories,  132. 


Wilkes,  John. — (Continued.) 
"Father  of  the  City,"  140. 
Demonstration  in  his  favor  after  pas- 
sage of  Quebec  Bill,  149-150. 
Returned  to  Parliament,  1774, 154. 
Pledges  himself  against  Quebec  Act, 

155-156. 

References  to,  in  cartoon,  280-28 1 . 
Gifts  from  Colonies,  281-282. 
William   and   Mary   College,   Williams- 
burg,  Virginia,  240, 245. 
Williamsburg  (Virginia),  227, 254, 313. 
Association  of,  261. 
Convention  held  at,  254, 260-275. 
Cartoon,  "  The  Alternative  of  Wil- 
liams-Burg," 282. 
Willett,  Marinus,  of  New  York,  220. 
Wilson,  William  Charles  (1750),  engraver, 

xv. 
Wilton,  Joseph  (1722-1803),  sculptor. 

Statues  of  Pitt,  31,68. 
Wisconsin,  146. 
"The  Wise  Men  of  Gotham  and  their 

Goose,"  cartoon,  42-48 . 
Witherspoon,    Rev.   John    (1722-1794), 

President  of  Princeton  College,  241. 
Women. 

Letter  from  a  lady  in  Williamsburg  to 

a  friend  in  London,  255-256. 
In  the  cartoon  "The  Alternative  of 

Williams-Burg,"  282. 
Their  part  in   the   dispute   between 
Great    Britain   and   the   Colonies, 
285-322. 

Sentiment  of,  in  England,  286-293. 
Sentiment  of,  in  the  Colonies,  286, 

293-299. 

Society  of  Patriotic  Ladies  of  Eden- 
ton  in  North  Carolina,  293,  311- 
316. 
In  the  cartoon,  "  Society  of  Patriotic 

Ladies,"  316. 
Wool,  300-301. 

Wythe,  George,  of  Virginia  (1726-1806), 
250,  280.  o>,  ^ 


|Vv*-  .     _' 


'*•- 


'~  '^.  '+     - 


